sooth!-Come, come, proceed, and give it him soundly."

"Gracious Heaven! what shall I do?" groaned the shivering sufferer. "Dear Mr Fyke, so please you, sir, do speak a word for me.'

The unfortunate marine had now received eighteen lashes, when, whether from the private whispers of his first lieutenant, or that the high frenzy of his fine rolling passion had passed away, is not properly known; certain it is, however, that he suddenly ordered the sleeper to be cast loose gave the serjcant a pretty severe lecture on his negligence in not visiting the sentries oftener, and keeping them on the alert; and then, informing all hands he should surprise them with news on the following morning, he ordered the boatswain to pipe down, and retired from the deck, followed by his officers.

66

Faithfully, dearest brother, shalt thou do thy work all the day," whispered Dennis to our hero, as they left the deck, "and at night, dearly beloved, so that it please me, will I rouse thee from thy sleep, to behold me give a poor overcome lobster a hearty thrashing!-By the powers of Moll Kelly, but that's a way of rigging out the commands Father Daniel never gave me the smallest notion of. But what the blazes, Ned, is he going to surprise us with to-morrow ?-can you tell me that, dear ?”

"Bah, are you so dull as that, mate?" cried our hero; "doesn't recollect what big Bob told us? You'll see, if I'm not greatly mistaken, that he'll surprise us to-morrow, by rousing all hands an hour at least before daylight-boring us to death with rigging and niggling at something or other and then to crown the whole, the old 'Ral will board us when his time comes, lend us a few of his hands, and kick us out to sea. Won't that surprise you enough, matey ?"

66

By the powers, and it certainly will, dear.-Hubbaboo! what a spalpeen my head is that couldn't see this before-but then you're so 'cute, Ned.-"

"No, not so 'cute either, Denny; although I think, if we may believe the tall fellow, it is all likely enough."

"No doubt of it, Ned; and to show you I firmly believe every word on't, dear, by the hookey, I'll belay farther botheration about the matter,

and haste me asleep as fast as I can. Do you the same, gragh; for by the piper of Leinster we'll have the devil's own day of it to-morrow.-So good night, Ned-a sound sleep to you, dear, and a blithe morning."

The morning came, and with it a more than usual quantum of duty; for our hero had guessed aright—the Admiral was that day to pay them a visit, and the severity of the scrubbing and cleaning was wisely proportioned to so great an honour. We therefore choose to push aside all preliminary ceremonials-the nice exactitude to which Mr. Marlin, from a boat a-head, squared the yards-how sleek the sails lay on the yards, and how trim the fresh blacked gaskins looked on their bunts and quarters-how adroitly the life-lines were rove, for the purpose of manning the yards-and, above all, the many ingenious expedients resorted to, both by gentlemen and commoners, some of them doubtless ludicrous enough, in order to make themselves look as smart as possible in the august presence; we pass all these, and hasten to bring our reader down to the moment, when the Guardship's signal gun had announced that the Admiral was about to enter his barge.

In the Tottumfog everything was in order and readiness. The marines were already stationed, in full twig, under arms beaft the mainmast-all hands were on deck, dressed as gay and as uniform as their means or their ingenuity could devise; and the cue having been already given them, every man waited in a death-like silence for the word to spring to the station appointed him. These moments of suspence were very brief; for a second gun having given warning that the Admiral had shoved off, Lieutenant Fyke immediately sung out, All hands man the yards-away aloft !-when away they sprung, and in a few moments the Tottumfog assumed a very imposing appearance.

The day, though cold, was remarkably fine; and the stately barge, as befitted the unusual quality of her cargo, came on with infinite gravity to the slowly measured sweeps of her verdant-coloured oars. At length she made alongside the boatswain and his mates trilled their silver calls-the drum gave three long continued rolls-the marines presented arms-the Admiral and his attendants came on board, and

were received in the very pink of naval costume, by Captain Switchem and his officers on the quarter-deck, uncovered. The Admiral having been carefully handed by the gallant captain to a splendid arm-chair, brought that very morning, for the occasion, from the Britannia Inn, which was appropriately ornamented with a leopard's skin thrown carelessly on its bottom, so that the part which formerly covered the animal's head might now serve as a mat for the feet of the hero-and the etiquette and ceremonials of introduction being adjusted, Lieutenant Fyke marched forward, speaking trumpet in hand, as far as the gangway, and sung out-All hands, lie in !when the yards were deserted in a trice, all hands hurrying down, and again resuming their ranks on the deck. Here they remained until the Admiral, after partaking of a slight refreshment, had examined the 'tween decks, and walked along the whole of their line. He was now again seated, the ship's books were laid before him on a small card-table, when Mr Fudgeforit, in full holiday canonicals, called from another the names of the whole ship's company individually, who, as they were named, approached the Admiral hat in hand, and retired from him to the other side round by the capstan.

The admiral, a little plump, freshcoloured, hale old man, highly powdered, and in full uniform-having signified to Captain Switchem that he wished to commemorate his visit to the Tottumfog, by rewarding such of his crew with promotion as he and Lieutenant Fyke thought most deserving of it, they accordingly planted themselves on each side of his chair, in order to point out the several indivi duals on whom they wished him to bestow this favour. As these individuals now approached him, therefore, the Admiral, after paying them a short but flattering compliment-rendered doubly valuable by the good-humoured frankness with which it was bestowed-shortly informed them, if landsmen, they were now to be rated ordinary and if already ordinary, they were now to consider themselves able seamen. Among a great number thus unwittingly promoted, were our hero and his friend, Dennis Mahony, who, upon the representations of Lieutenant Fyke, were not only enrolled

amongst the promoted, but received the admiral's word of honour that they should be faithfully reported to the Admiralty-a species of honour, however, both our hero and his friend had little cause afterwards to rejoice at.

Human ingenuity never invented a better plan to gild a bitter pill, than this popular step of the Admiral's; for having gone over, examining the whole ship's company individually, his next request to the captain was that he would call all hands aft on the quarter-deck; when, rising from his seat, and leaning o'er the capstan, he thus addressed them :"It is impossible for me, my lads, to tell you how proud I am to have such a band of fine smart fellows as the crew of this vessel now under my command. Your behaviour altogether has given me the highest satisfaction; but your trip this last cruise has so completely delighted me, for the coolness, the bravery, and the determined intrepidity with which you overcame every obstacle laid in your way by the enemy, that it has determined me in selecting your vessel for a more important, honourable, and I trust it will prove a more lucrative service for you all.

I am ready to confess to you, that I really think you have hitherto fought more for honour than for anything else; but I now mean to send you on a cruize, where I hope you'll reap both honour and prize-moneybesides earning that precious meedthe best and dearest to a British bosom-the applause of your King, and the gratitude of your Country. We live in times, my lads, when England expects every man to do his duty;

I am proud to say that I think hitherto you have done yours ;—and in order to encourage you, and give you the first and fairest chance of making prizes,-for other vessels shall follow you as fast as they come in,I mean to dispatch you to your destination this very afternoon ;-and I trust, nay, I should rather say, I am certain I shall have no cause hereafter to regret, that the van of my cruizers on that important station was led by the brave crew of his Majesty's sloopof war, the Tottumfog.-What say you, my brave fellows, do you all volunteer ?"

Three hearty cheers was the reply. "I expected nothing less from you,

THIS is a little book, about little people, by a little author, of the height of Tom Moore-full of little stories, pleasant to read, and little woodcuts, pleasant to look at a book, in short, all the persons and things connected with which are little, except the good humour and the research; both of which are great. It is a collection of fairy stories, from the south of Ireland, told with a true Hibernicism of tone and manner-an asiness, as the natives themselves would say, which (as they would not say,) is quite refreshing. The stories, even as told here, are as old as the hills-in their original existence, as old as the mountains of the first formation. It is really amazing how little creative of new incidents we are.

Our jokes made yesterday are in Hierocles, and he again is but a revival of the jesters of the East. Punch, who castigates Judy for the benefit of the street audience, is the Arlechino of Italy-the descendant of the Fescennines-the regular representatives of the drolls of the golden age-temp. Saturni primi. The very cantripes of our witches, their hell-broths and cauldrons, are all in Apuleius, who is himself but an echo of times much older-a dim shadower forth of mysteries, by himself not understood. Ghosts have flourished in all their glory from the earliest times, and we know of no addition made to their terrors. There is nothing in the Castle of Otranto-nothing in the Mysteries of Udolpho-that we have not heard before we mean nothing of incident. The White Lady of Avenel, piercing the centre of the earth, and singing her wondrous songs, is to be found in many a fabling saga. We own that her taking a hob-nailed, hard-fisted Berwickshire clown at her tail, to find a translation of the Bible in central fire, is new; but we doubt whether the original inventor would claim the addi

tion.

Among other of the gay and gloomy

ray.

imaginations dispersed all over the world, is that of the fairies. The pygmies of old, riding on ram-backt-the troldes of the north-the dwarfs of the romancers-the Daoineshee of the Highlands-the Banshies, Phookas, Shefros, &c. of the Irish-the Mabs, the Oberons, the Titanias-many more, too long for our purposes, meet us in every quarter of the globe. But there is seldom much use in doing over again anything that Sir Walter Scott has thought proper to do; and highly as we respect ourselves, we beg leave to refer to the curious in fairies to his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and then they will be satisfied to their heart's content on the subject. What we were saying of the want of the creative power in men in these later ages, holds here as well as in any other department of the imaginative faculty; for there's hardly a story told, either by Sir Walter Scott, in the beautiful dissertation to which we have alluded, or by Mr Thomas Crofton Crocker, in the pretty and amusing volume before us, which could not be traced to antiquity as remote as the earliest congregation of men in society.

Everything, therefore, is in the telling, and in the description of the peculiar costume in which these stories appear, in the particular country from which the narrator has drawn his immediate subject; in both of which main branches of art, our present story-teller has most admirably succeeded. By way of specimen, we take the very first.

THE LEGEND OF KNOCKSHEOGOWNA.

"In Tipperary, is one of the most singularly shaped hills in the world. It has got a peak at the top, like a conical nightcap thrown carelessly over your head as you awake in the morning. On the very point is built a sort of lodge, where in the summer the lady who built it and her friends used to go on parties of pleasure;

but that was long after the days of the fairies, and it is, I believe, now deserted.

"But before lodge was built, or acre sown, there was close to the head of the hill a large pasturage, where a herdsman spent his days and nights among the herd. The spot had been an old fairy ground, and the good people were angry that the scene of their light and airy gambols should be trampled by the rude hoofs of bulls and cows. The lowing of the cattle sounded sad in their ears, and the chief of the fairies of the hill determined in person to drive away the new comers, and the way she thought of was this:-When the harvest nights came on, and the moon shone bright and brilliant over the hill, and the cattle were lying down hushed and quiet, and the herdsman wrapt in his mantle, was musing with his heart gladdened by the glorious company of the stars twinkling above him, bathed in the flood of light bursting all over the sky, she would come and dance before him,-now in one shape-now in another, but all ugly and frightful to behold. One time she would be a great horse, with the wings of an eagle, and a tail like a dragon, hissing loud and spitting fire. Then in a moment she would change into a little man, lame of a leg, with a bull's head, and a lambent flame playing round it. Then into a great ape, with duck's feet and a turkeycock's tail. But I should be all day about it were I to tell you all the shapes she took. And then she would roar, or neigh, or hiss, or bellow, or howl, or hoot, as never yet was roaring, neigh. ing, hissing, bellowing, howling, or hooting, heard in this world before or since. The poor herdsman would cover his face, and call on all the saints for help, but it was no use. With one puff of her breath she would blow away the fold of his greatcoat, let him hold it never so tightly over his eyes, and not a saint in heaven paid him the slightest attention. And to make matters worse, he never could stir; no, nor even shut his eyes, but there was obliged to stay, held by what power he knew not, gazing at these terrible sights, until the hair of his head would lift his hat half a foot over his crown, and his teeth would be ready to fall out from chattering. But the cattle would scamper about mad, as if they were bitten by the fly; and this would last until the sun rose over the hill.

"The poor cattle, from want of rest, were pining away, and food did them no good; besides, they met with accidents without end. Never a night passed that some of them did not fall into a pit, and get maimed, or, may be, killed. Some would tumble into a river, and be drown

ed; in a word, there seemed never to be an end of the accidents. But what made the matter worse, there could not be a herdsman got to tend the cattle by night. One visit from the fairy drove the stoutest hearted almost mad. The owner of the ground did not know what to do. He offered double, treble, quadruple wages, but not a man could be found for the sake of money to go through the horror of facing the fairy. She rejoiced at the successful issue of her project, and continued her pranks. The herd gradually thinning and no man daring to remain on the ground, the fairies came back in numbers, and gambolled as merrily as before, quaffing dew-drops from acorns, and spreading their feast on the head of capacious mushrooms.

"What was to be done, the puzzled farmer thought in vain. He found that his substance was daily diminishing, his people terrified, and his rent-day coming round. It is no wonder that he looked gloomy, and walked mournfully down the road. Now in that part of the world dwelt a man of the name of Larry Hoolahan, who played on the pipes better that any other player within fifteen parishes. A roving, dashing blade was Larry, and feared nothing. Give him plenty of liquor, and he would defy the devil. He would face a mad bull, or fight singlehanded against a fair. In one of his gloomy walks the farmer met him, and on Larry's asking the cause of his down looks, he told him all his misfortunes. If that is all ails you,' said Larry, 'make your mind easy. Were there as many fairies on Knocksheowgowna as there are potatoe blossoms in Eliogurty, I would face them. It would be a queer thing, indeed, if I, who never was afraid of a proper man, should turn my back upon a brat of a fairy, not the bigness of one's thumb.'-'Larry,' says the farmer, do not talk so bold, for you know not who is hearing you; but, if you make your words good, and watch my herds for a week on the top of the mountain, your hand shall be free of my dish till the sun has burnt itself down to the bigness of a farthing rushlight.

"The bargain was struck, and Larry went to the hill-top, when the moon began to peep over the brow. He had been regaled at the farmer's house, and was bold with the extract of barleycorn. So he took his seat on a big stone, under a hollow of the hill, with his back to the wind, and pulled out his pipes. He had not played long when the voice of the fairies was heard upon the blast, like a low stream of music. Presently they burst out into a loud laugh, and Larry