Gray, however, better than my relative; and so,
without heeding his reprimand, I answered, in English, that if I
cursed the ship's owner on that occasion, it was my _debut_ in the
English language on the American continent; and as my Anglo-Saxon
education had been finished in a forecastle, it was not to be expected
I should be select in my vocabulary. "Never the less," I added, "Mr.
Gray was so delighted with my _accolade_, that he valued my defence of
his property and our delicious _tete-a-tete_ at the sum of a hundred
dollars!"

CHAPTER II.

The anecdote told in the last chapter revived my uncle's recollection
of several instances of my early impetuosity; among which was a
rencounter with Lord Byron, while that poet was residing at his villa
on the slope of Monte Negro near Leghorn, which he took the liberty to
narrate to Mr. Gray.

A commercial house at that port, in which my uncle had some interest,
was the noble lord's banker;--and, one day, while my relative and the
poet were inspecting some boxes recently arrived from Greece, I was
dispatched to see them safely deposited in the warehouse. Suddenly,
Lord Byron demanded a pencil. My uncle had none with him, but
remembering that I had lately been presented one in a handsome silver
case, requested the loan of it. Now, as this was my first _silver_
possession, I was somewhat reluctant to let it leave my possession
even for a moment, and handed it to his lordship with a bad grace.
When the poet had made his memorandum, he paused a moment, as if lost
in thought, and then very unceremoniously--but, doubtless, in a fit of
abstraction--put the pencil in his pocket. If I had already visited
America at that time, it is likely that I would have warned the
Englishman of his mistake on the spot; but, as children in the Old
World are rather more curbed in their intercourse with elders than on
this side of the Atlantic, I bore the forgetfulness as well as I could
until next morning. Summoning all my resolution, I repaired without my
uncle's knowledge to the poet's house at an early hour, and after much
difficulty was admitted to his room. He was still in bed. Every body
has heard of Byron's peevishness, when disturbed or intruded on. He
demanded my business in a petulant and offensive tone. I replied,
respectfully, that on the preceding day I loaned him a _silver_
pencil,--strongly emphasizing and repeating the word _silver_,--which,
I was grieved to say, he forgot t