ood marksman myself;
my studies" (and here I looked big, for I doubted if he could even read,
much less construe a chapter in the Greek Testament) "did not leave me
much time. A squirrel is too small an object for all but an experienced
man, but a "_large_" mark like a quart bottle can easily be hit at a
hundred yards--that is nothing."

"I will take you a bet," said he, "of a doubloon, you do not do it
again?"

"Thank you," I replied with great indifference: "I never bet, and
besides, that gun has so injured my shoulder, that I could not, if I
would."

By that accidental shot, I obtained a great name as a marksman, and by
prudence I retained it all the voyage. This is precisely my case now,
gentle reader. I made an accidental hit with the Clockmaker: when he
ceases to speak, I shall cease to write. The little reputation I then
acquired, I do not intend to jeopardize by trying too many experiments.
I know that it was chance--many people think it was skill. If they
choose to think so, they have a right to their opinion, and that opinion
is fame. I value this reputation too highly not to take care of it.

As I do not intend then to write often, I shall not wire-draw my
subjects, for the mere purpose of filling my pages. Still a book should
be perfect within itself, and intelligible without reference to other
books. Authors are vain people, and vanity as well as dignity is
indigenous to a colony. Like a pastry-cook's apprentice, I see so much
of both their sweet things around me daily, that I have no appetite for
either of them.

I might perhaps be pardoned, if I took it for granted, that the
dramatis personae of this work were sufficiently known, not to require
a particular introduction. Dickens assumed the fact that his book on
America would travel wherever the English language was spoken, and,
therefore, called it "Notes for General Circulation." Even Colonists
say, that this was too bad, and if they say so, it must be so. I shall,
therefore, briefly state, who and what the persons are that composed our
travelling party, as if they were wholly unknown to fame, and then leave
them to speak for themselves.

The Reverend Mr. Hopewell is a very aged clergyman of the Church of
England, and was educated at Cambridge College, in Massachusetts.
Previously to the revolution, he was appointed rector of a small parish
in Connecticut. When the colonies obtained their independence, he
remained with his little flock in his na