Here's Mr. Cypress, and Ned Locus, and Oliver Paul!-By gad, I'm glad to see ye.-How are ye! how are ye!" How d'ye do! how d'ye do, fellows! Give us your fist, Raynor. Peter, what the d-1 brought you down here? Dan, alive? how are ye, how are ye all? At Raynor's call, the boys sprang up from their straw and pea-jackets, upon which they had been snoring in their sleeping places around the floor of the mansion, and rushed upon us with unaffected gratulation. The story of the reception can be briefly told. There were three of us, and twenty of them, and we all and each jointly and severally said, "how have you been? Pretty well, thank ye;" and shook hands. Make the calculation yourself. While you are cyphering it out, I'll stop and rest. VOL. I.-3 "Peter. "I will promise you, I will sing another song in praise of angling, to-morrow night; for we will not part till then; but fish to-morrow, and sup together, and the next day every man leave fishing, and fall to his business' "Venator. "'Tis a match; and I will provide you with a song, or a catch, or a merry tale against then, too, which shall give some addition of mirth to the company; for we will be civil and merry as beggars.' "Piscator. Tis a match, my masters. Let's e'en say grace, and turn to the fire, drink the other cup to whet our whistles, and so sing away all sad thoughts. Come, on, my masters, who begins? I think it is best to draw cuts, and avoid contention.'"-IZAAK WALTON. "Ex urbe ad mare huc prodimus pabulatum : Pro exercitu gymnastico et palaestrico, hoc habemus, PLAUTUS RUDENS, ACT I., SCE. I. It is meet, and commendable in a veracious traveller, upon his arrival in an undiscovered country, to note, and register the appointments of his hostelry. Record we, therefore, circumspectly, an inventory of our new tenement and comfortable head-quarters. Oh, for a pen worthy of the grave, and dangerous obligation! Hope, not, proud dweller in houses with chimneys, for a vision of gorgeous brick and mortar, nor the architectural glories of granite magnificence, nor the adornments of pompous garniture. Ask not for needless chairs, nor seek superfluous tables; no, nor the vanities of boarded floorings. Simplicity and republican thrift constructed and apparelled the edifice. Babylon nursed the young saplings, which, lopped from their sprouty trunks, and into the sandhills driven deep, incline their leafless tops bending to meet each other at the culmen, where, through the ragged crater, the beaten smoke struggles against the impetuous gales, mounting from the central fire built beneath, upon the primeval hearth of circling anchor-stones. Captain Dodd threshed the oats out of the straw, which, now intertwined and closely thatched between the unpeeled rafters, repels the whistling storm with its thick envelopment. No unshut doors creak on their unoiled hinges, letting in the cold air; nor windows tempt the passing juvenal to throw stones. The spumal piscators have ingress by a hole cut through the straw near the ground, bending down upon their knees. The mansion glories in two avenues of entrance. Eurus breathes upon the one; sleepy Phœbus, going to bed, paints with doubtful purple the other;-inlets beloved by baymen, safe avenues of escape from the rough assaults of the puffy servants of Æolus, who are always cruising about the beach. Hail! hospitable holes! A piece of stranded ship-timber furnishes a safe street-door, secured by a laid up stone; the wind is shut out, and the tired family sleep. "Exegi monumentum”*—I have built the hut. Contemplate, now, the household ornature. Enter, welcome friend. Stoop, stoop-" Bend, stubborn knees." And now recline upon this couch of wholesome straw, which carpets the whole area of the domicil. The dying coals shed but uncertain light upon the congregated groups of sleepers, and dimly give to sight the motley equipage of the crew. There they lie," each in his narrow cell," or rather, each in his little stramineous dormitory, which, once appropriated, is sacred to the bones of its peculiar tenant. There sleeps, and snores the worn-out bayman; "—structis cantat_avenis."§ * Horace. t Hamlet. + Gray. ◊ Ovid. There, the safe proprietor deposits his pea-coat, private liquor, and unusual blanket; confident in the honor of his comrades, unless the weather should happen to be savage, when, doubtless, he will watch diligently. No idle space remains, save the brief circle around the fire place, which serves, in turn, for parlor, dining-room, and kitchen. The tapestry hangings are various, and picturesque. The subject of the illustration is the blessed beauty of utility. Up against the sapling uprights are fastened shelves, unconscious of the plane; and rust-browned hooks, and nails, disclose their alternate heads and points, where lie, or are suspended, or are thrust into the straw, the luxuries and superfluities of the squad:“Αρχετ' αοιδάς” "Begin, ye nine, the sweet descriptive lay"—* to wit; a jug of molasses; item, a black-edged, broken, pack of playing cards; item, a love-feast hymn-book; item, six inches by two of looking-glass-quicksilver half off; item, a bunch of mackerel; item, an extra pair of party-colored pantaloons, nineteen times mended in the seat; item, something to take, by way of medicine, for thirsty members of the Temperance society; item, the first two leaves of "the Swearer's Prayer"-tract-rest used up; item, the American Songster; item,—but the inventory will "stretch out to the crack of doom;"—most imaginative reader, complete the catalogue with guns, eel-spears, clam-rakes, powder-horns, and breadbaskets, with their appurtenances, according to thy most fastidious desires. There are all of these, and more, for thee to choose from. Having resolved the difficulties of the selection, wend back with me, a short way, to our landing place, and Theoc. I. Idyl. per Cobbett. know a new friend with whom we ought to have tarried on our way, and held a brief discourse. We have crossed the bay, skirting by the Fire Islands, leaving them a few hundred yards behind us to the north, and have rested our prow upon the classical sands of Raccoon Beach. Upon our arrival here, we put in alongside of the new wharf of the eximious Mr. Smith, a person of no little importance, being a man under authority, having a wife over him, a keeper of their majesties', the people's, lighthouse, adjoining his own tenement, duly appointed and commissioned, a lawful voter, a licensed vender of " spurrets and things accorden," and the only householder upon the island ridge. Mr. Smith had the happiness, in early life, of being blest with parents of taste, in matters of nomenclature, singularly coincident with that of my own. His christian name was Jeremiah, too; and—perhaps, because his surname was unusual, and difficult to pronouncehis friends and visitors always gave him their greeting, by the gentle and euphonious appellation of "Jerry." I always thought it was kind in Jerry to take out that license; first upon his own account, because it brought him company that could give him the news from the upland, now and then, and the correct time of day, and a little odd change occasionally; and secondly, upon the account of the aforesaid company, because they could always rely upon getting something to comfort the inner man, good, when they landed from their long adventure across the bay. And in good sooth, these are not few, nor melancholy visitors, who make their pilgrimages to this romantic region. Pilgrimages? Aye; for here is a shrine most generous and propitious, to the bayman, the sportsman, the bather, and the beach-frolicker. How often have those dark waters been sprinkled, as with rain, with the |