tter its condition. The Home Government, and an imported Governor,
were blighting to their vital energies. This subject, however, is not
fruitful, hence his reader will please accompany him to a different.
Having left Pierce for a time, Smooth, with that resolution so
characteristic of his countrymen, wherever found, entered into the
codfish business. Transforming himself (after the manner of his uncle
Jeff Davis), into a captain of the fishing schooner Starlight, which
said schooner he ran over the treaty line straight into Fox Island, on
the coast of Cape Breton, where he proposed making the acquaintance of
the inhabitants, and, if possible, a treaty of friendship and
commerce. The waters in and about the port were alive with
mackerel--the finest, plumpest, fattest, and most willing fish ever
seen in any waters. They sported round us, looking clever enough to
make all on board the schooner believe they wanted to come on board.
The crew felt like scraping acquaintance with them, favoring them with
a hook, and the like; but then there interposed that great
bugbear--the treaty line. Hard was it to tell where this line was; it
might, for aught to the contrary, be on the top of a wave, upon which
we might be tossed, much against Smooth's inclination, far into the
unlawful side. Being, however, inside of the line and surrounded by
mackerel, one would have supposed the Nova Scotians had been on the
alert catching them. The case was just the reverse, for not a Nova
Scotiaman was to be seen. To Smooth's mind this was making a law to
protect the lazy, something he never approved of, more especially in
these days of energy and railroads. A determination was come to, after
mature deliberation, that fish there were and fish our boys must have,
so you must lend an ear while Smooth relates the manner in which he
got them. Deacon Hawkins kept an inn for the entertainment of man and
beast. It was not the very best kind of an inn, for it was managed by
the deacon's wife, whose parsimony and love of Friday evening meetings
had lost her nearly all her guests and driven her children barefoot
into the street. On the day following the Starlight's arrival, as luck
would have it, a 'political meeting' was to be holden at the Deacon's,
when a considerable amount of first-rate drinking was sure to come
off. Smooth, being Mr. Pierce's minister in general, was honored with
an invitation which he declined in consideration of his anxiety to be
among