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MY NEIGHBOURS OVER THE WAY. 152 hemp. 'Kase, as he was one o' the missing, 'twas only nat'ral to suppose, he was one o ' the six who was piked o'erboard from the brig. Hang it, Tom,” said Tailor, looking at Turner, who hung down his head“ You needn't be ashamed she was a craft fit for a skipper and what's more, I couldn't believe 'twas in woman to think so much for a man, as she did for you. So, spell, oh!” said Tailor, thinking he had satisfied his auditory with that part of the narrative of which Tom was deficient.

“Well,” resumed Tom,” as soon as I comes to myself next morning -where does I find myself but in the French skipper's cabin hung up in his cot laid out in lavender, and treated like a lady. There was the captain let's see what was his name? -Lee lee lee strange; and a strange fellow he was. There he was, sitting by my side, giving me drink to cool my mouth, and, tending me, for all the world, like one o' your Haslar hags. He sat up with me two nights himself, and not a soul but the doctor he'd let come, ay, within hail o ' me. Well, as soon as I was able to shift my bob, ashore I goes to the hospital. There was the skipper coming day after day, sometimes bringing me fruit, sometimes giving me money and many's the bottle o ' brandy he'd a brought me, if the doctors had only a let him. I hard often afore of your French politeness; but hang it, thinks I, this is more nor a bow or a scrape. What the devil does he see in me, says I, one day as he pulls out a 'Polion, -I'm one of the last, thinks I, he should treat in this sort o' fashion for, you know, I happened to be the only fellow amongst us as did him a mischief. Wasn't I the chap as mowed down four of his men! and, moreover, didn't he lay me, with his own hand, stretched for dead on his deck!

“Howsomever, as soon as I gets well o ' my wounds, they marches me inland to Verdun.— Well, I wasn't there a fortnight afore the Governor sends for me, and gets one o ' your tarpeturs to unlay his parlee voo lingoo, and tarn it into twice laid English. Well, ' said the tarpetur, ' the governor desires me to say, as you brought a good karector away wi ' you from Brest that if so be, (for you see the fellow spoke capital English), that if so be, you've any likin' for your liberty, you may have it -but mind, ' says he, ' it all depends on yourself. ' Well, I makes a sort o' a salam, for, you see, you'll never do nothing with Crappo if you don't bow and scrape, ay, and bend your body almost double, like a boot jack. 'Well,' says I, I've nothing to say, no more nor this, that liberty's sweet all the world over.'— Howsomever, after a little palaver, the tarpetur comes to the pint:—'Well,' says he, the governor desires me to say, if so be you've a likin' that way, he'll make you a gemman; and, moreover, a leaftenant in Bonypartie's sarvice.'

“'I'm obliged all the same, sir, 'says I, making a grand salam to the governor, but as I never had a turn for the thing that's to say, never sarved my time to the trade of a gemman if it's all the same to the governor,' says I, 'I'd rather remain as I am.'

“Well, instead of giving him offence, I'm blest if the old gemman didn't shake me by the fist, and swore, as the tarpetur afterwards told me, I was a hanged fine fellow, and too good a man to be a gemman in any sarvice.”

NOTE. This story is founded on fact, and the hero of it, is now living in London with Captain M-s of the Navy.

From the British Magazine.

MY NEIGHBOURS OVER THE WAY.

BY MISS JEWSBURY.

CURIOSITY is a very curious thing. It predominates in rational beings and yet is no mark of rationality. Man shares it with his dog, and woman with her cat; with this difference, that the curiosity of one animal is chiefly exercised about things, and the curiosity of the other concerns persons. The cat and dog, when taken to a strange place, institute, by scratching and smelling, an inquiry as to the nature of the premises: without being metaphysicians, they settle the question of distinctions and differences, and finally, coil themselves on the hearth rug and consent to be at home. But the cat and dog's master and mistress, when taken to a strange place, begin in another way. Their inquiries are all personal.” Who is he? ““Where does she come from? ““Where do his friends live? “till a copious series of questions put the inquirer in possession of many a stranger's personal narrative. But it requires a much longer time to make a curious man and woman settle down on the hearth rug than suffices for Puss and Ponto. Researches that affect pedigree, fortune, and association, are not so soon achieved as those that concern furniture, carpets, and the position of doors; and in civilized society it requires great gravity and discretion to get honestly at the knowledge of our neighbour's affairs. A finished curieux, or curieuse, to the imagination of a poet that “draws all things to one,” should add the patience of a philosopher, who scorns to jump to a conclusion; the sagacity of a lawyer, who establishes a connexion between things seemingly irrelevant; the degagee manners of a person of fashion, who never seems to have any thing on his mind; and the self denial of a philanthropist, who exists but for others! They are inconsistent who represent curiosity as degrading to the human character, and yet land