seconded by her parents, of demanding her hand in marriage. I left the village soon after, with a heart torn with anguish, and with many a sigh for a loss which nothing could repay. ' She is gone now,' continued the happy man with a groan, and I possess not the slightest memento to recall her image.'
" Oh, by the by,' said I, ' I cut off a lock of her hair, and have it still with me. I thought that at some future day you might be glad to receive such a treasure.'
" God bless you ! ' he cried-' give it to me !' And as I drew it from my purse, and handed it to him, he grasped it convulsively, and pressed it again and again to his lips, while à tear glistened in his eye, and his bosom heaved as if it would have burst. A silence of a few minutes ensued.
" To continue my narrative, ' said he, again addressing me. ' I soon arrived in London, and sought out my old haunts and companions. Here I plunged headlong into the wildest scenes of dissipation ; and in the midnight revel, and at the gamingtable, endeavoured to efface all remembrance of the past, and to forget the gentle being who had enchained my heart. In this wild course oflife, my money soon melted away, and before six months had passed, I was penniless. In vain I sought aid from those who had feasted at my expense, and who had made me a thousand protestations of friendship. Every purse was closed, and I myself was shunned as one whose touch was contamination. Hungry and weary, I one day strolled down to the docks, and while listlessly gazing at a brig then about to sail, I heard her captain regretting the loss of one of his crew, who had met with an accident, and whom he would be forced to leave behind, while he had not time to procure another to fill the vacancy.'
' I'll go with you,' said I , starting forward.
" Jump aboard, then, my man, ' cried he, mistaking me for a sailor, as I wore a jacket, in the place of my coat, which I had pawned, two days before, for food.
" We sailed immediately, and were soon on our way to Havanna, whither the brig was bound. The captain, quickly discovering that I was a perfect novice at sea, would have sent me back in the pilot boat, had he not been short-handed, and thought my presence necessary to work the ship . As it was, he treated me most brutally during the passage, and I was too inexperienced in nautical discipline not to resent it as far as I dared. Finding my obstinacy but little inferior to his own, and
looking on me as a desperado, on our arrival in port he permitted me to leave the vessel. With feelings of utter loneliness,