I always dream about
him. I can see his face come up above the boiling water, and when he
screams I wake up. I can never get clear of him out of my head; and
yet, mind you, I didn't drown him; he fell in of his self, and I just
missed throwing him th' rope, that's all; and I wasn't bound to do
it, was I?

"As for the money I got for the seal skins, I could have lived
comfortably on it all my life, but it never did me no good. I
started drinking, trying to forget that Port Albert man, but it was
no use. Every shilling was soon gone, and eversince I've been doing
odd jobs and loafing about the publics. I've never done no good and
never shall. Let's have just another nobbler afore we turn in."

A HAPPY CONVICT.

"Thrice did I receive forty stripes, save one."

It was court day at Palmerston, and there was an unusual amount of
business that morning. A constable brought in a prisoner, and
charged him with being a vagrant--having no lawful visible means of
support. I entered the charge in the cause list, "Police v. John
Smithers, vagrancy," and then looked at the vagrant. He was growing
aged, was dressed in old clothes, faded, dirty, and ill-fitting; he
had not been measured for them. His face was very dark, and his hair
and beard were long and rough, showing that he had not been in gaol
lately. His eyes wandered about the court in a helpless and vacant
manner. Two boys about eight or nine years old entered the court,
and, with colonial presumption, sat in the jury box. There were no
other spectators, so I left them there to represent the public. They
stared at the prisoner, whispered to each other, and smiled. The
prisoner could not see anything to laugh at, and frowned at them.
Then the magistrate came in, rubbing one of his hands over the other,
glanced at the prisoner as he passed, and withered him with a look of
virtuous severity. He was our Black Wednesday magistrate, and was
death on criminals. When he had taken his seat on the bench, I
opened the court, and called the first and only case. It was not
often we had a man to sit on, and we sat heavily on this one. I put
on my sternest look, and said "John Smithers"--here the prisoner
instantly put one hand to his forehead and stood at "attention"--
"you are charged by the police with vagrancy, having no lawful
visible means of support. What have you to say to that charge?"

"I am a blacksmith looking for work," said the prisoner; "I ain't