interest in their welfare.

The truth of this was curiously corroborated by a rather equivocal
acquaintance of mine, who, among the men, went by the name of
"_Shakings_." He belonged to the fore-hold, whence, of a dark night, he
would sometimes emerge to chat with the sailors on deck. I never liked
the man's looks; I protest it was a mere accident that gave me the
honour of his acquaintance, and generally I did my best to avoid him,
when he would come skulking, like a jail-bird, out of his den into the
liberal, open air of the sky. Nevertheless, the anecdote this _holder_
told me is well worth preserving, more especially the extraordinary
frankness evinced in his narrating such a thing to a comparative
stranger.

The substance of his story was as follows: Shakings, it seems, had once
been a convict in the New York State's Prison at Sing Sing, where he
had been for years confined for a crime, which he gave me his solemn
word of honour he was wholly innocent of. He told me that, after his
term had expired, and he went out into the world again, he never could
stumble upon any of his old Sing Sing associates without dropping into
a public house and talking over old times. And when fortune would go
hard with him, and he felt out of sorts, and incensed at matters and
things in general, he told me that, at such time, he almost wished he
was back again in Sing Sing, where he was relieved from all anxieties
about what he should eat and drink, and was supported, like the
President of the United States and Prince Albert, at the public charge.
He used to have such a snug little cell, he said, all to himself, and
never felt afraid of house-breakers, for the walls were uncommonly
thick, and his door was securely bolted for him, and a watchman was all
the time walking up and down in the passage, while he himself was fast
asleep and dreaming. To this, in substance, the _holder_ added, that he
narrated this anecdote because he thought it applicable to a
man-of-war, which he scandalously asserted to be a sort of State Prison
afloat.

Concerning the curious disposition to fraternise and be sociable, which
this Shakings mentioned as characteristic of the convicts liberated
from his old homestead at Sing Sing, it may well be asked, whether it
may not prove to be some feeling, somehow akin to the reminiscent
impulses which influenced them, that shall hereafter fraternally
reunite all us mortals, when we shall have exchanged this State's