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394
the paintings. There the fair Pompei
ian could have taken her station in or
der to participate in the life outside.
The good housewife of those times, like
her counterpart in our day, could there
have held out her basket to the street
merchant who went wandering about
with his portable shop ; and more than
one handsome girl may at the same post
have carried her lingers to her lips,
there to cull (the ancient custom) the
kiss that she flung to the young Pom
peiian concealed down yonder in the
corner of the wall. Thus re-peopled,
the old time street, nanow as it is, was
gayer than our own thoroughfares ; and
the brightly-painted houses, the varie
gated walls, the monuments, and the
fountains, gave vivid animation to a pic
ture too dazzling for our gaze.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
Rich—Poor.
hailed him handsomer than
wise *
And wiser than a Witch 1
They praised him to the topmost
GTTY? skies
\!EJO And to the bottom ditch.
Q/ 3 Suck Larks! when reeling language
tries
To warble, “ You are rich !”
And was he rich ? Petrolia’s oil
That boils in butter, o’er—
The sun-burst of a Butler’s spoil
Backed by a Stewart’s store—
The glory ofGolconda’s pile—
And I can pile no more !
Were Paupers to his private smile
That welcomed silence, —
“ Poor 1”
F. 0. T.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
A HUNT ON THE WAKULLA;
OR, JACK DOBSU IN FLORITA.
By the Author of “ Big-Foot Wallace," and
“ Jack Dobell; or, A Boy's Adventures
in Texas."
CHAPTER V.
jack dobei.l’s yarn continued—black
EYED SENORITAS —ELEGANT ENTERTAIN
MENT —RETURN TO TAMPA —PASSAGE
ENGAGED FOR MANATEE —IIARD-LOOK-
ING CREW —UNSOCIABLE COMPANIONS
—A PLEASANT CONVERSATION OVER
HEARD —VALUE OF KNOWING SPANISH.
-
l/XijvELL,” as I wa3 saying, “Hon
Sebastian conducted us into
the house, where he showed
us a great many curiosities he had col
lected in his rambles over all parts of
the world —a perfect museum. Beauti
ful shells from the Indian ocean and
‘Oman’s green waters;’ daggers and
stilettos from ‘sword famed Damascus
golden saints and rosaries from Italy ;
baskets and boomerangs and Japan ware
from the East India Islands ; fans and
lacquered work from the Celestial Em
pire, and hundreds of other curious
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
things, which, as the auctioneer’s say,
‘ it would be too tedious to mention.’
“ At length we adjourned to the par
lor, where the young ladies favored us
with some beautiful Spanish songs, ac
companying themselves on the guitar,
which they played to perfection. As I*
gazed admiringly upon their graceful
forms, their glossy ringlets, and ‘ dark,
languishing eyes’—”
“ ‘There you go again,’ said Jimmy
Dunn, ‘into sickening sentimentality.
‘ No more of that an thou lovest me,
Hal,’ but stick to your text.’
“ ‘Oh, let the boy tell bis story in bis
own way,’ said Bob Harris.
“ Well,” I went on, “ when Don Se
bastian bad shown us all the curiosities
about the bouse, he conducted us to a
sort of pavilion, built upon the top of
an artificial mound, forty or fifty feet
in height, from which an extensive vieiv
of the bay and the adjacent country
could be had for many miles in every
direction. The mound upon which this
pavilion was erected bad been thrown
up perhaps ages ago by the aboriginal
inhabitants of the peninsula, but for
what purpose we could not conjecture,
unless indeed they intended it for a
sort of ‘ look out point,’ or observatory.
The whole mound, from the top to the
bottom, was shaded by flowering shrubs
and fruit trees, among which we noticed
the orange, the fig, and the banana,
with its broad green pendulous leaves.
It was truly a lovely and romantic spot
—an oasis in a desert of pine barren.
“ Whilst we were still admiring the
fragrant orange groves and handsome
grounds around the premises, a servant
came to inform us that dinner was wait
ing, and we returned to the house and
sat down without much pressing to a
repast that would have satisfied the
most fastidious epicure—fish, flesh and
fowl, oysters and shrimps, preserves
and sweetmeats from the West Indies,
and a variety of the finest wines I have
ever seen in this country, the whole
served up in ancient massive silver
plate, quaintly carved, and reminding
me forcibly of the ‘ plundered galleons’
and ‘ scuttled argosies ’ of the good old
days of the buccaneers.
“ But Don Sebastian was as polite
(and as stately too) as a Spanish noble
man, begging all to make themselves at
home, at the same time pressing liis su
perb wines upon each one in succession
with the most lavish hospitality. For
my part, though usually a very diffident
youth, (‘ahem!’ said Jimmy Dunn,)
there was hut little pressing needed, and
I ate and drank until I was heartily
ashamed of myself.
“ Nothing occurred to mar the good
feeling and hilarity of the occasion ex
cept once, when a mischievous chap of
our party, on hearing asked by Don Se
bastian what claret he preferred, wheth
er ‘ Chateau Margaux ’ or ‘ Bordeaux,’
replied, that, if entirely convenient, he
would take a glass of ‘ Lafitte.’ A dark
scowl flitted across the visage of Don
Sebastian for an instant which would
have been appropriate and becoming if
he had been urging a score or so ol cap
tives ‘ to walk the plank,’ but was rather
out of place at a sociable gathering.
How ever, he quickly smoothed his
brow, and was as polite and attentive
as ever.
“After dinner, wo took our seats on
the piazza fronting the bay, where we
luxuriated for an hour in the cool sea
breeze, and smoked a few dozens of the
Don’s fine Spanish ‘puros.’ Then bid
ding adieu to Don Sebastian, his wife,
and lovely daughters, who gave us a
cordial invitation to renew our visit, we
embarked on board our boat, and about
sunset safely landed again at Tampa,
highly pleased with our day’s excursion,
and our visit to the ‘ pirate’s den. ”
“ Os all the yarns I have ever listen
ed to,” said Jimmy Dunn, returning to
the charge again, “this one certainly
caps the climax. You set out by pro
posing to tell us of a narrow escape you
bad for your life, and here you have
been talking for the last half hour about
a visit to a gentlemanly pirate, and how
you devoured his sweetmeats and swill
ed his good wines. If you have made
any narrow escape yet for your life it
could only have been from ‘foundering’
upon the racy dishes that were served
up in that ‘ massive silver plate.’ ”
“ Or,” said I, “ from falling in love
with one of those beautiful and accom
plished senoritas.”'
“Y'es,” said Jimmy, “and there, I
suppose, is where your ‘‘smattering’ of
the Spanish language comes in, for no
doubt you overheard them say some
thing not very complimentary to Mr.
Dobell, and which had perhaps rather a
chilling effect upon your budding pas
sion.”
“Maybe so,” said I, “but just hold
on till I get to the end of my story, and
then if you don’t confess I did have a
‘ tight squeeze’ for my life, you shall be
welcome to abuse my yarn to your
heart’s content.”
“ The next morning after our visit to
the ‘pirate’s den,’ as I was strolling
along the street in front of the quay, I
saw a boat lying at one of the wharves
which I thought I had not previously
seen. Thinking it possible I might get
a passage on her to the Manatee, I went
on board and inquired of an ill-favored,
swarthy, Mexican-looking fellow who
was seated on the deck, ‘ when that
boat would sail and where she was
hound to?’ He replied in a sort of jar
gon I could with difficulty understand
that the boat was bound for Key West,
and would ‘put in,’ on her way, at the
Manatee, and that she would leave in
the course of an hour or so.
“ Although I was anxious to get down
to the Manatee as soon as possible, I
really think if I could have seen the
whole of the boat’s crew before I en
gaged my passage, that I would have
waited willingly another week for the
chance of better company on the way ;
but as it was I told the fellow 1 would
be ready to start with him as soon as I
could get my trunk and other ‘traps’
from the hotel. He gave me to under
stand I had ample time for that, so 1
hastened up to the hotel, bid a hurried
good-bye to such of my friends as I saw,
and in half an hour was hack on the
boat again, with all my ‘goods and chat
tels.’
By this time the rest of the boat’s
crew had returned on board. There
were three of them altogether, and
though the one I had first seen was any
thing hut prepossessing in his appear
ance, the other two had the most vil
lainous and ‘hang-dog’ looking coun
tenances that ever caricatured the ‘ hu
man face divine.’ The one who was on
the boat when I first went aboard of her
seemed to have the command, as 1 judg
ed from the peremptory way in which
he ordered the others about, speaking
to them in Spanish, which I suppose
was their native tongue, and indeed, as
I found out afterwards, was the only
language they could speak at all. The
‘captain,’ as I said before, spoke a little
broken English. The whole concern,
boat, crew, and all, had such a suspi
cious and dubious appearance that I was
half inclined to go ashore and wait for
the fishing smack, whicli I had been
told would shortly sail for Key West,
hut I felt ashamed to hack out in that
way, upon mere suspicion, and so con
cluded to remain and take the chances.
In a little while after I came on hoard
the Mexicans or Spaniards (whatever
they were,) hoisted sail, and we put oil
with a favorable breeze down the hay.
As we sailed along, I made one or two
efforts to enter into conversation with
the fellow who commanded the craft,
hut he knew so little in reality of the
English language, or pretended that he
did, that I gave it up as a hopeless case,
and took a seat by myself on deck in
the shade of the mainsail. I could easi
ly have conversed with him in Spanish
if I had seen proper to do so, hut some
how it occurred to me that perhaps it
might he well enough to keep these
prepossessing gentlemen in ignorance
of the fact that I understood and spoke
the language.
“And there I sat hour after hour in
a half dozing condition, or lazily watch
ing the white-winged gulls as they skim
med the surface of the waters in search
of their finny prey, or gazing upon the
fantastic and ever-changing forms ol
the fleecy clouds, as they slowly floated
away on the distant horizon ; or dream
ing of that ‘idol of my soul,’ from whom
it seemed to me I had already been sep
arated an age.”
“Go on,” said Jimmy Dunn, “let us
have the whole of it at once, and then
be done with it. Perhaps it will not
be so nauseating as when it is ‘ exhibit
ed in broken doses.”