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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.”