s? The seventh. Well, on
the eighteenth there is a ship sails from Genoa for Porto Rico. It was
the announcement set my heart a-thinking of the project. I dreamed of it
two entire nights. I fancied myself walking the deck on a starlit night,
and framing all my projects for the future. The first thing I saw next
morning was the same placard, 'The "Colombo" will sail for Porto Rico on
Friday, the eighteenth.'"

"An unlucky day," muttered Billy, interrupting.

"I have fallen upon few that were otherwise," said Massy, gloomily;
"besides," he added, after a pause, "I have no faith in omens, or any
care for superstitions. Come, let us set about our preparations. Do
_you_ bethink you how to rid ourselves of all useless encumbrances here.
Be it _my_ care to jot down the list of all we shall need for the voyage
and the life to follow it. Let us see which displays most zeal for the
new enterprise."

Billy Traynor addressed himself with a will to the duty allotted him. He
rummaged through drawers and desks, destroyed papers and letters, laid
aside all the articles which he judged suitable for preservation, and
then hastened off to the studio to arrange for the disposal of the
few "studies," for they were scarcely more, which remained of Massy's
labors.

A nearly finished Faun, the head of a Niobe, the arm and hand of a Jove
launching a thunderbolt, the torso of a dead sailor after shipwreck, lay
amid fragments of shattered figures, grotesque images, some caricatures
of his own works, and crude models of anatomy. The walls were
scrawled with charcoal drawings of groups,--one day to be fashioned
in sculpture,--with verses from Dante, or lines from Tasso, inscribed
beneath; proud resolves to a life of labor figured beside stanzas in
praise of indolence and dreamy abandonment. There were passages of
Scripture, too, glorious bursts of the poetic rapture of the Psalms,
intermingled with quaint remarks on life from Jean Paul or Herder. All
that a discordant, incoherent nature consisted of was there in some
shape or other depicted; and as Billy ran his eye over this curious
journal,--for such it was,--he grieved over the spirit which had
dictated it.

The whole object of all his teaching had been to give a purpose to this
uncertain and wavering nature, and yet everything showed him now that
he had failed. The blight which had destroyed the boy's early fortunes
still worked its evil influences, poisoning every healthful effort, and