ate, after all," replied Anton, and began to tell the
story of his life.

Fink kept nodding approvingly, and then said, "After all, the greatest
difference between us is that you remember your mother, and I do not
mine. I have known people who found less love in their home than you
have done."

"You have seen so much of the world," pleaded Anton; "pray let me hear
how you chanced to come here."

"Very simply," began Fink; "I have an uncle at New York, one of the
aristocrats of the Exchange. When I was fourteen, he wrote to my father
to send me over, as he meant to make me his heir. My father was a
thorough merchant. I was packed up and sent across. In New York I soon
became an accomplished scapegrace, was up to every species of folly, and
kept race-horses at an age when German boys eat bread and butter, and
play with tops in the streets. I had my favorite _danseuses_ and
_cantatrices_, and so bullied my servants, both white and black, that my
uncle had enough to do to bribe them into taking it quietly. My friends
had torn me from my home without consulting my feelings, and I did not
care a straw for theirs. In short, I was the most renowned of the young
scamps who pique themselves upon their devilry on the other side the
water. It was on one of my birth-days that, returning home from a
certain _petit souper_, the thought suddenly struck me that this career
must come to an end, or it would end me. So I went to the harbor instead
of to my uncle's house, and having, on my way, bought a coarse sailor's
dress and put it on, I hired myself to an English captain. We sailed
round Cape Horn, and when we reached Valparaiso I thanked the Englishman
for my passage, treated the crew, and jumped on shore with twenty
doubloons in my pocket, to make my fortune by the strength of my arm. I
soon fell in with an intelligent man, who took me to his _hacienda_,
where I won my laurels as herdsman. I was about half a year with him,
and liked the life. I was treated as a useful guest, and much admired as
sportsman and horseman. What did I need further? We were just going to
have a great buffalo hunt, when suddenly two soldiers made their
appearance on the scene, and trotted me off with them to the town, where
I was made over to the American consul; and as my uncle had moved heaven
and earth to track me, and as I found, from a long letter he had
written, that my father was really unhappy, I resolved to return to
Europe by the next ship. I at