am not sure; walk on with me, and we will inquire of yonder gentleman."

"You are excessively good," said he, with a smile, which gave much more expression to his face-"I am afraid I give you an infinite degree of trouble; you are enjoying rural felicity, poetically correctpray, do not let me interrupt you."

As he spoke the clock struck.

"Fortune favors the deserving," I remarked, as a continuation of the converse so happily commenced.

He spoke with more familiarity-" Upon my honor, sir, you are very complimentary: if every body thought of me as you do, or at least, if they thought as much of my productions, I flatter myself I should have had a watch for myself."

"I'll warrant me," I replied, "many have the means of ascertaining time better than yourself, who know not how to use it half so well."

"Sir," said he with a bow, "if you will buckle fortune to my back-but you don't flatter me-no, no. My excellent, good friend, you have much more penetration than people in general. Sir, I have been abused-vilely, wretchedly, da

-, but I won't swear-I don't follow the fashions so much as to make a fool of myself; but on the honor of a perfect gentleman, I do assure you, sir, I have been very strangely used, and abused, too."

"I have no doubt, sir," observed I, "but that your biography would be interesting."

"My biography-you've hit the mark; I wish I

had a biographer-a Dunlap, a Boswell, a Virgil, or a Homer-he should begin his book with the line "Multum ille et terris, jactatus et alto,

Vi superum."

I have been a very football, sir, for the gods to play with."

"Tantane animis cœlestibus ira,"

said I, willing to humor the pedantry which I already began to discover, "but the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong."

"Aha! sir,” he exclaimed with a gentle squeeze of my hand, "I know what you are-some kindred spirit-one of those kind, high beings who come upon this world 'like angel visits, few and far between.' I see it, sir, in your eye," continued he, with a gesture that might have spurred even Miss Kemble to new exertions. "I see it in your eyecharity, benevolence, affection, philosophy, and science. Ah! my dear sir, I know you are better than the rest of mankind; you've done a great deal of good in the world, and will do a great deal

more

"You portioned maids—apprenticed orphans blest―
The old who labor, and the young who rest :
Is there a contest? enter but your door,
Balked are the courts, and contest is no more;
Despairing quacks with curses fled the place,
And vile attorneys, now a useless race."

"Sir?" ejaculated I, not very well pleased with this last slash at my beloved profession

-"Or, perhaps," continued he with increasing rapidity of speech, "you are a lawyer, my dear sir, the grand path to political glory-sweet occupation; to put out the strong arm, and save drowning innocence; to hurl the thunderbolt of eloquence against proud and wealthy oppression; to weave a charm of safety around defenceless beauty; and catch clumsy, and otherwise unconquerable power in your mazy net of law-Pray, sir, can you lend me a shilling ?"

I handed him the money, and he turned to be off, when I seized him by the arm, and asked him where he was going? He laid one hand upon his receptacle for food, and with the other pointed to a tavern, before which hung the sign "Entertainment for Man and Horse."

"My dinner-my dinner-my dinner!" said he, "I haven't eaten a particle these three weeks; poverty and poetry, sir, go arm and arm, sworn friends and companions, through this vale of tears; one starves the body and the other rarefies the soulmy way has been rough and rugged as the Rockaway turnpike road, and misfortune jerks me along as if life went upon badly made cog-wheels. Will you be so kind as to lend me another shilling? I want a dinner for once in my life-beefsteaks and onions, butter, gravy, and potatoes—

"Hæc olim meminisse juvabit.”

It will be a grand era in my poetical career."
There was something so exquisitely whimsical

in the fellow's demeanor, that I determined to spend the afternoon in his company. I never shall forget the look and squeeze which he bestowed upon me when I proposed that we should adjourn to the inn, and dine together at my expense. He seized hold of my hand, and drew himself up erect in all the enthusiasm of poetic madness

"Sir," said he, informing me that he could not speak, with a rapidity of pronunciation, which reminded me of a horse running 'away-" Sir, Mr. a-a-a-my dear, dear friend-my tongue faltersI can't speak-I'm dumb-gratitude has shut up the sluices of my heart; and the cataract of my oratorical powers is dried up-pro tem. But it will come directly-Stop till I get in the house—

"Arma virumque cano."

that is to say, I'll tell you my history; but just at this moment," continued he, smacking his lips, and his little eyes dilating with the eager anticipation of epicurean delights, yet to come-"just at this crisis,

"Oh! guide me from this horrid scene,

These high arched walks, and alleys green."

then with a slight pause and smile,

"Let's run the race-he be the winner,
Who gets there first, and eats his dinner."

As he spoke, he pulled me forcibly by the arm, and I found myself in a neat, clean room, with the

hungry poet fastened close to my side. The conversation which occurred between us, and the history of his literary vicissitudes, must be the subject of the next chapter.

CHAPTER II.

THE NOVEL.

"Now mayors and shrieves all hushed and satiate lay,
Yet eat in dreams the custard of the day,

While pensive poets painful vigils keep,

Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep."

Though no spirit is so lofty but that starvation can bend it, yet in the tranquillity of our replenished bodies we are always wicked enough to enjoy the extravagant emotions which agitate authors and other hungry individuals, when by any strange variety of life they happen to get a good dinner.

My friend, who had delighted me with his volubility of speech, no sooner perceived that the preparations were ended, than he fell upon his defenceless prize like a lion on his prey. Poetry and prose, fanciful quotations and lofty ideas, for a time were banished from his busy brain. Our conversation, the whole burthen of which had at first been borne by him, was now lost in the superior fascinations of beefsteak and onions; and a few unintelligible monosyllables, uttered from a mouth crammed