124 MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. 



box, and so when they went ashore, getting a receipt, the sailors broke open the box 

 and took all the money, not making any distinction between Government money, 

 which was legitimate money to be stolen, and my uncle's, which was his own 

 private property, and should have been respected. But he came home and got 

 some more and went back. And then he took the fever. There are seven kinds 

 of fever down there, you know; and, as his blood was out of order by reason of 

 loss of sleep and general wear and tear of mind, he failed to cure the first fever, 

 and then somehow he got the other six. He is not a kind of man that enjoys 

 fevers, though he is well-meaning and always does what he thinks is right, and so 

 he was a good deal annoyed when it appeared he was going to die. 



But he worried through, and got well and started a farm. He fenced it in, and 

 the next day that great storm came on and washed the most of it over to Gibraltar, 

 or around there somewhere. He only said, in his patient way, that it was gone, 

 and he wouldn't bother about trying to find out where it went to, though it was his 

 opinion it went to Gibralter. 



Then he invested in a mountain, and started a farm up there, so as to be out of 

 the way when the sea came ashore again. It was a good mountain, and a good 

 farm, but it wasn't any use ; an earthquake came the next night and shook it all 

 down. It was all fragments, you know, and so mixed up with another man's 

 property, that he could not tell which were his fragments without going to law; and 

 he would not do that, because his main object in going to St. Thomas was to be 

 quiet. All that he wanted was to settle down and be quiet. 



He thought it all over, and finally he concluded to try the low ground again, 

 especially as he wanted to start a brickyard this timp. He bought a flat, and put 

 out ■ a hundred thousand bricks to dry preparatory to baking them. But luck 

 appeared to be against him. A volcano shoved itself through there that night, and 

 elevated his brickyard about two thousand feet in the air. It irritated him a good 

 deal. He has been up there, and he says the bricks are all baked right enough, 

 but he can't get them down. At first, he thought maybe the Government would 

 get the bricks down for him, because since Government bought the island, it ought 

 to protect the property where a man has invested in good faith; but all he wants is 

 quiet, and so he is not going to apply for the subsidy he was thinking about. 



