124 MEETING OF TWO OLD SCnOOLMATES. 



breast were not near so disgusting, as from previous 

 description I had imagined them to be. 



Quite a pleasant incident occurred on board our 

 vessel, during this evening. One of the crew of the 

 brig Jane came into our forecastle, and inquired 

 whether there were any natives of Patterson, New 

 Jersey, present. Two of our crew, belonging to that 

 city, presented themselves ; and, after some inquiries, 

 one of them proved to be the play- and school-mate 

 of the stranger. The}' had not met since their child- 

 hood, and their meeting now caused much feeling 

 on each side. Both had followed the sea for years, 

 and been self-exiled as it were from their native land. 

 When a stripling, the one aboard of us had joined 

 the volunteers in General Scott's army, then in Mexico. 

 After participating in the struggle until peace was 

 declared, he returned to the United States, spent his 

 pay, and then shipped aboard a whaler bound to the 

 Arctic ocean. Having been forty months at sea, he 

 came back, and again spent his earnings just as fool- 

 ishly as he had done before ; and, being compelled 

 by necessity to return to the ocean for support, he 

 shipped aboard a merchant vessel bound for Liver- 

 pool. He next made various voyages to different 

 parts of Europe and the West Indies, experiencing 

 perilous vicissitudes; when, finally, he embarked on 

 board our old craft. His schoolmate had joined a 

 New Bedford whaler ; which, after being a year from 

 home, touched at a port on the eastern coast of New 

 Zealand, where he deserted, and engaged for a time 

 in the lumber trade ; in which, he told me, he would 

 liave done well, if he had left liquor alone. From 

 this he proceeded to trade with the natives, aud was 



