34. LEAVES FROM A LOG. 



"Haw! haw! haw!" resounded through the forest; the notes 

 were like the laughter of demons. I started at the unearthly noise, 

 and found it was made by a colony of red monkeys perched on the 

 gigantic trees under which I was passing. 



" You villains, do you mock my vexation ?" cried I aloud. They 

 looked down at me with their expressive and halt-human counte- 

 nances, which they turned first to one side and then to another, as 

 though they partly understood what I said. They gave another 

 general hail, and then skipped away so friskily that I could swear 

 there was not a long-tailed rascal of them but what had dined. 



Issuing from the woods, the plantation of which Mr. Muscovado 

 was attorney* appeared in sight. It was true that I could not expect ' 

 any very splendid entertainment there, for he generally kept a mise- 

 rably spare table. However, as even Muscovado's Newfoundland, 

 steak (salt fish) and plantains would be acceptable to me in the present 

 state of my appetite, I turned from the main road to go to his 

 dwelling. 



. " Is your master at home, boy ?" said I to a negro ; for here when 

 we know not the name of a negro we call him boy, although (as on 

 the present occasion) he should be gray-headed. 



" Yes, massa," was the reply. 



Has he dined?" 



" No, him hab (has) company no dine till night." 



This was glorious information for me, for I could calculate on a 

 good repast as he had company, and so I gladly hurried towards the 

 mansion, whence, as I approached it, issued most agreeable sounds. 

 I heard Mrs. Muscovado play on the piano with great taste, accom- 

 panied by some one on the flute, while another sung ; at the end of 

 each stanza several voices joined in chorus. 



As the song ended I was about to dismount, when I heard a voice 

 which fixed me to the saddle, exclaim 



" Bravo ! that's an almighty good song, I guess !" These words 

 were uttered by Jonathan Longlick, an American merchant, and de- 

 cidedly the most indefatigable dun that ever gave a debtor the blue 

 devils one who has been known to importune an insolvent on his 

 death-bed, and dun a widow at the funeral of her husband ; one who 

 when he visited a planter in order to persecute him until he settled 

 " that there small account" between them, was neither to be diverted 

 by hospitality nor mollified by good fare ; in vain might the dunee 

 give this Yankee Shylock a pound of the finest flesh that Creole 

 mutton afforded, and induce him to wash it down with the richest 

 Champagne ever smuggled from Martinique; "he would have his 

 bond ;" in short, he was a man who gave unlimited credit, yet was 

 never known to lose a single debt, save on one occasion when he 

 trusted a countryman of his own with three bags of cocoa for which he 

 could not pay. Longlick so worried his unfortunate debtor, that the 

 latter finding he could no longer keep his head above water, drowned 



* An agent in the West Indies is called an attorney. 



