day, when the dew sparkled and the sun shone peculiarly bright, he so far forgot himself as to ascend a hillock and venture on a tolerably triumphant crow. It showed a lack of judgment; his cock-a-doodle-doo proved fatal. Scarcely had he done so, when Cochin-China rushed upon him, tore out his feathers, and flogged him so severely that it was doubtful whether he would remain with us. Now, alas! he presents a sad spectacle: his comb frozen off, his tail burnt off, and his head knocked to a jelly. While the corn jingles in the throats of his compeers when they eagerly snap it, as if they were eating from a pile of shilling pieces or fi'-penny bits, he stands aloof and grubs in the ground. How changed!-Up the River.

A "

A'

THOMAS BANGS THORPE.'

(BORN 1815-DIED 1878.)

HOOSIER" IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE.

BOUT one hundred and twenty miles from New Orleans reposes, in all rural happiness, one of the pleasantest little towns in the South, that reflects itself in the mysterious waters of the Mississippi.

To the extreme right of the town, looking at it from the river, may be seen a comfortablelooking building, surrounded by China trees; just such a place as sentimental misses dream of when they have indistinct notions of "settling in the world."

This little "burban bandbox," however, is not occupied by the airs of love, nor the airs of the lute, but by a strong limb of the law, a gnarled one too, who knuckles down to business, and digs out of the " uncertainties of his profession" decisions, and reasons, and causes, and effects, nowhere to be met with, except in the science 1 See Biographical Sketch, p. xxxv.

called, par excellence, the " perfection of human reason."

Around the interior walls of this romanticlooking place may be found an extensive library, where all the "statutes," from Moses' time down to the present day, are ranged side by side; in these musty books the owner revels day and night, digesting" digests," and growing the while sallow, with indigestion.

On the evening-time of a fine summer's day, the sage lawyer might have been seen walled in with books and manuscripts, his eye full of thought, and his bald high forehead sparkling with the rays of the setting sun, as if his genius was making itself visible to the senses; page after page he searched, musty parchments were scanned, an expression of care and anxiety indented itself on the stern features of his face, and with a sigh of despair he desisted from his labors, uttering aloud his feelings that he feared his case was a hopeless one.

Then he renewed again his mental labor with tenfold vigor, making the very silence, with which he pursued his thoughts, ominous, as if a spirit were in his presence.

The door of the lawyer's office opened, there pressed forward the tall, gaunt figure of a man,

a perfect model of physical power and endurance-a Western flatboatman. The lawyer heeded not his presence, and started, as if from a dream, as the harsh tones of inquiry, grated upon his ear, of,

"Does a 'Squire live here?"

They call me so," was the reply, as soon as he had recovered from his astonishment.

66

Well, 'Squire," continued the intruder, "I have got a case for you, and I want jestess, if it costs the best load of produce that ever come from In-di-an."

The man of the law asked what was the difficulty.

"It 's this, 'Squire: I'm bound for Orleans, and put in here for coffee and other little fixins; a chap with a face whiskered up like a prarie dog, says, says he,

Stranger, I see you 've got cocks on board of your boat-bring one ashore, and I 'll pit one against him that 'll lick his legs off in less time than you could gaff him.' Well, 'Squire, 1 never take a dar. Says I, 'Stranger, I'm thar at wunce'; and in twenty minutes the cocks were on the levee, like parfect saints.

"We chucked them together, and my bird, 'Squire, now mind, 'Squire, my bird never

struck a lick, not a single blow, but tuck to his heels and run, and by thunder, threw up his feed, actewelly vomited. The stakeholder gave up the money agin me, and now I want jestess; as sure as fogs, my bird was physicked, or he 'd stood up to his business like a wild cat."

The lawyer heard the story with patience, but flatly refused to have any thing to do with the

matter.

"Prehaps," said the boatman, drawing out a corpulent pocket-book," prehaps you think I can't pay here's the money; help yourself— give me jestess, and draw on my purse like an ox team."

To the astonishment of the flatboatman, the lawyer still refused, but unlike many of his profession, gave his would-be client, without charge, some general advice about going on board of his boat, shoving off for New Orleans, and abandoning the suit altogether.

The flatboatman stared with profound astonishment, and asked the lawyer, "if he was a sure enough 'Squire."

Receiving an affirmative reply, he pressed every argument he could use, to have him undertake his case and get him "jestess," but when he found that his efforts were unavailing,