100 THE MEWSTONE. 



stones and manuring it with sea weed and sand, car- 

 ried up From the beach with much labour and perse- 

 verance ; he built a wall round the garden as a 

 manoeuvre to keep out the rabbits, but the latter 

 have outmanoeuvred him by boring under his fortifi- 

 cation. 



In this garden he has grown potatoes, turnips, 

 cabbages, leeks, onions, parsley, &c. ; the rabbits had 

 sufficient judgment to allow the latter to come to its 

 full growth, but then they made a supper of the whole 

 bed. They have also demolished sundry potatoes, so 

 that Sam has yet to find out an effective barrier to 

 their depredations ; with his rabbits and garden one 

 would suppose that Sam might provision his dinner 

 table all the year round, but, being a bit of an epicure, 

 he keeps some poultry, and moreover a couple of pigs ; 

 not long since a very " promising'* porker, in making 

 a spring from one cliff to another, fell into the sea ; 

 the dead body floated over to Newton, and Sam has 

 built two or three styes to guard against such an ac- 

 cident for the time to come. 



The word " Civility" is engraved on Sam's face, 

 but there are lines in it which tell that he might be 

 a tartar, especially if he found any one poaching on 

 his manor: a rifle bullet might be sent through the 

 tail of an intruder's coat to warn him off before bones 

 were broken. 



Sam and* his wife hold the island rent free, and 

 have the privilege of eating every thing which grows 

 thereupon, on condition that they will protect the mb- 

 bits during the time when it is not lawful to shoot 

 them ; during the proper season they may shoot 

 and eat as many as they will ; the " Squire" visits 

 the island occasionally, and sometimes shoots seventy 

 during an evening, which are left at Sam's disposal. 



When you take a trip to the Mewstone, reader, as 

 you value your character for benevolence, export a 

 few ounces of snuff to Sam, he is a most inveterate 

 snuff taker ; and, until I meson may see fit to es-j^ 

 tablish a branch store on the little Mewstone, he is 



