have said at once,
that he did not belong to their family. That is all, sir; I never
disparage a passenger, and, therefore, shall say no more than merely
to add, that Mr. Dodge is no warrior."

"They say he has experienced religion, lately, as they call it."

"It is high time, sir, for he had experienced sin quite long enough,
according to my notion. I hear that the man goes up and down the
country disparaging those whose shoe-ties he is unworthy to unloose,
and that he has published some letters in his journal, that are as
false as his heart; but let him beware, lest the world should see,
some rainy day, an extract from a certain log-book belonging to a
ship called the Montauk. I am rejoiced at this marriage after all,
commodore, or marriages rather, for I understand that Mr. Paul
Effingham and Sir George Templemore intend to make a double bowline
of it to-morrow morning. All is arranged, and as soon as my eyes have
witnessed that blessed sight, I shall trip for New-York again."

"It is clearly made out then, that the young gentleman is Mr. John
Effingham's son?"

"As clear as the north-star in a bright night. The fellow who spoke
to me at the Fun of Fire has put us in a way to remove the last
doubt, if there were any doubt. Mr. Effingham himself, who is so
cool-headed and cautious, says there is now sufficient proof to make
it good in any court in America, That point may be set down as
settled, and, for my part, I rejoice it is so, since Mr. John
Effingham has so long passed for an old bachelor, that it is a credit
to the corps to find one of them the father of so noble a son."

Here the commodore dropped his anchor, and the two friends began to
fish. For an hour neither talked much, but having obtained the
necessary stock of perch, they landed at the favourite spring, and
prepared a fry. While seated on the grass, alternating be tween the
potations of punch, and the mastication of fish, these worthies again
renewed the dialogue in their usual discursive, philosophical, and
sentimental manner.

"We are citizens of a surprisingly great country, commodore,"
commenced Mr. Truck, after one of his heaviest draughts; "every body
says it, from Maine to Florida, and what every body says must be
true."

"Just so, sir. I sometimes wonder how so great a country ever came to
produce so little a man as myself."

"A good cow may have a bad calf, and that explains the matter. Have
you many as virtuous and pious women in t