f a stiff glass of grog, or as we would
say, in the parlance of the country, "a ball," Dick's heart was
softened; and he smiled his satisfaction in a sardonic grin, which had
anything but amiability in its expression. Having finished the
satisfying of his own inward man; and commenced the indulgence of adding
his contribution to the general nicotian pregnated atmosphere, while
proceeding about his vocation, he replied to William's various questions
with a wonderful alacrity and volubility, strangely contrasting with the
taciturn moroseness which had appeared to be his usual manner. Warmed
with the genial influence of the spirituous unction, his bosom, if he
was possessed of such a divison of anatomy, was opened to his young
companion; and he not only gave him a perfect outline of his own
history, but a synopsis of that of his master, together with other
particulars, various and heterogeneous. As the reader may desire some
little acquaintance of Dick's career, we will detail it; and, to save
the infliction of that individual's verbosity and jargon, render his
narrative into a more comprehensive vernacular; prefacing it with the
remark, that the adventures of the narrator must not be considered as a
rule, or a characteristic of the inhabitants of the colony. Hopping Dick
was an exception; he was in fact one of the last specimens of a class,
now happily nearly extinct.

Hopping Dick was a "lag" and a "lifer;" or to be more explicit, he was
one of those gentlemen who "leave their country for their country's
good," and whose period of expatriation is for the term of their natural
lives. What was the nature of the offence that caused his transportation
we are unable to say positively, though we can form a pretty shrewd
opinion. By his own account, all the justiciary of England conspired in
unholy league to effect his ruin, and did not rest until they had
accomplished their dread designs. Though we have no doubt he was very
hardly dealt with in the deprivation of his liberty, we strongly
suspect our friend had a predilection for visiting the domiciles of his
fellow citizens, slightly in opposition to their wishes; and dropping in
at most unseasonable hours, by means of some instrumental application of
his own, detrimental to the locks and fastenings of such dwellings. In
addition to this, he sometimes had a playful manner of titulating the
craniums of his friends, so visited, with a toyish sort of article he
was induced to car