THE SEA-SHORE. 41 



too fast, or from all these causes combined, I know not ; but I felt a 

 sudden check to my appetite, and a sensation a little like that caused 

 by surfeit. Not being able to proceed in my repast, by way of doing 

 something, while Don Josef and Pedro were eating, I examined 

 curiously the vetebrae of the fish on my plate. As I am a bit of an 

 Ichthyologist, I perceived the fish I had eaten of so heartily, was of 

 that which is by naturalists called the cartilaginous kind. Address- 

 ing my host, I said 



" Como se llama este pescado, Senor ?" (What do you call that 

 fish, Sir ? 



" Tiburon, " was the reply ; but as I did not know what tiburon 

 meant, I applied to Pedro Juan to tell me its name in English. 



" SHARK," said he. 



" SHARK ha !" I dropped my knife and fork ; for I had helped 

 to take one of these sea-gluttons the week before, which had devoured 

 a black child ; and the horrid appearance of the monster's maw flashed 

 across my imagination, and increased the unpleasant sensation I be- 

 fore spoke of to that degree, that I actually turned pale. 



" SHARK !" I repeated. 



te Yes," said Pedro coolly : " shark eat man, why not man eat 

 shark?" 



I rushed from the room 



SHARK! * * * * * * * 



* * * * * SHARK!! * * 



* * * * * * THE SHARK!!! 

 The prophecy of Quaco was literally fulfilled. I went to bed with- 

 out my dinner. 



THE SEA-SHORE. 



THOUGH I swell no sail 



With the gentle gale, 

 To waft me upon the tide ; 



Still my fancies free 



Glide over the sea, 

 With a passion I cannot hide : 



For I make my home 



By the colour'd foam, 

 Where its bursting billows part ; 



And I fly from all, 



To the musical call, 

 With which they summon my heart 



Not a weed can drift 



From the spray they lift, 

 But I think that it mutely grieves, 



For the ocean spar, 



For the wild wave's war, 

 For all that it loves and leaves ? 



And I watch the gloss 



Of the shells that toss 

 With a sighing strife on the shore, 



Till I deem them made 



Td feel for they fade 

 When the current returns no more. 



L. P. 

 M. M. No. 103. G 



