After a brief pause, my
tormentor continued "Do you recollect me?"

"No," said I, promptly; and glad of a chance to speak a little truth, I
added, "To the best of my knowledge, I never saw you before in my life."

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" My friend seemed greatly amused. "Can it be that I have
changed so much within a few short years? You knew me well enough once,
John, when I lived opposite your father's house. I am Lewis Brown." And
in a friendly, but somewhat patronizing manner, he held out his hand.

"Indeed," said I, grasping his proffered hand, "Lewis Brown! I never
should have recognized you."

"Yes," said Brown, "six years WILL make a change in one's appearance.
I should never have recognized you as John Lordick. How is your sister,
Bertha, and all the rest of the folks?"

"Well, quite well."

"Whom did your sister marry?"

"She is not married yet," said I.

"Not married yet! Why, she must be at least twenty years old. When I
left home, she was a beautiful girl even then a belle. Not married, and
in Saba! But she will be, soon, I suppose."

"Perhaps," said I.

"Ah! Ah! She is engaged, I see. Who is the happy man?"

"Indeed, I don't know," I exclaimed, wishing the inquisitive fellow at
the bottom of the Red Sea, with a twenty-four pound shot fastened to his
feet.

"What has become of your cousin, Mark Haraden? Is he as lively and
good-humored as ever?"

This Lewis Brown, delighted at having met with an old acquaintance,
seemed bent on getting all the information and gossip about his old
cronies, that chance had thrown in his way. Fearing I might perpetrate
some palpable absurdity in my fabulous statements, as in the case of my
"sister Bertha," I resolved to kill off all his friends and relations
in detail, without ceremony or remorse. And therefore I replied to the
question about Mark Haraden by saying,

"O! Mark was capsized by a squall while going in a boat from St. Martin
to St. Bartholomew with a load of sugar, and all hands were lost."

"Poor fellow! Poor fellow! I am sorry to hear this; but life's
uncertain. Where is Nicholas Ven Vert now?"

"Nicholas Van Vert? He happened to be at St. Kitts last year when the
yellow fever broke out there, and was attacked with it the day after he
reached home, and lived only three days."

"Indeed! Indeed! Well, we should all be prepared for whatever may
happen! How is old Captain Wagner as hale and hearty as ever?"

"The old man slipped and fell over a precipic