THE NEW ENGLAND SCHOOLMASTER. 83 



look here, Britisher, just look how quick the Hin- 

 dostan peninsula dried up, showing nairey a doubt, 

 that there ain't a show for a Yankee nohow in that 

 benighted land." 



From my own experience I knew there was a deal 

 of truth in what the Massachusetts schoolmaster said, 

 and I wished old England would only see the necessity 

 of holding in her own hands these self-same Straits of 

 Malacca and Sunda with the same jealous care as she 

 does our Indian empire, as through them all our most 

 valuable commerce must pass to the populous north- 

 eastern shores of the Pacific. 



Pleasant company, yet a great character was this 

 Yankee ; here he was evidently on a hunting-tour, 

 yet he could not shoot, and when in search of game, 

 in spite of remonstrance, would frequently produce 

 his tuning-fork, and strike up some doleful psalm 

 through his nose, instead of from his mouth, to let 

 the hills of this heathen land resound, as he said, to 

 the songs of the Lord. 



Mr. Schoolmaster for I found out he was a dominie ; 

 any fool with a grain of sense, except myself, might 

 have known with half an eye that he was something 

 out of the ordinary line never killed anything, so the 

 duty of supporting two mouths instead of one, devolved 

 upon me ; so from soon after sunrise to sundown I was 

 invariably from camp, leaving my new associate to the 

 bent of his fancies, provided he looked after the 

 horses, and kept sufficient firewood for the coming 

 night's consumption. The day had been dark and 

 gloomy ; the season, Indian summer; the hour, as 

 far as I judged, three in the afternoon, when to my 

 surprise, I heard the report of a gun in the direction 



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