demands on the strength of their misfortunes.
Thy poverty, poor Tom Scott, has evoked the
affluence of the sleek and prudent Davy
Macleod. The racking of thy sinews, and the
aching of thy bones, have smoothed his
pillow; thy pains are his pleasures; thy
battles have produced his peace; thy watchings
his sleep; thy drenchings in the
midnight forests his dryness of lodging. On
every pang and grief and care of thine he
has built his present heaven; and the last
blast of desolation that laid prostrate in the
burning ashes all that the world held dear to
thee, is the grand godsend to him, on which
he boldly asks that the rewards of his country
shall be added to his already unwieldy
affluence.

We will look a little nearer at this wondrous
son of fortune, this great lord of the
antipodes, this man of many merits—the New
Squatter.

      THE RAILWAY COMPANION.

I KNOW nothing more charming than the
discovery, that one has got an agreeable
companion at the commencement of a long and
fatiguing journey; if he has ear-flaps to his
cap and a neat portmanteau made to go
under the seat, so much the better, for they
mark the traveller who is almost always
more worth knowing than the stay-at-home.
Before the train has cleared the platform he
has made a pleasant observation in a cheery
friendly way, and going on to break a lance
with us in wit, or to make a pet quotation of
our own, he exhibits generally little nuggets
on the surface which may promise any amount
of gold-field underneath.

On the other hand, if he grumbles at the
light, or gives us a surly answer, or sits on
one newspaper while he engages himself with
another, how the milk of human kindness
curdles within us! We say in our haste,
all men are bears alike. The greatest one
I ever travelled with was on a short trip
from London to Brighton, when I was a
wicked young cadet at Sandhurst, and in
company with two others of the same college.
We three had been, of course, late for the
train; and, while it was on the move, bundled
into the first carriage we laid hold of, and it
turned out to be the den of a white bear. He
had a white hat and a white great-coat, and
growled in a polar manner at our sudden
incursion. I was but fifteen, and felt inclined
to beg his pardon, but Darall and Goit were
older and stiffer-necked.

"Sir," said the former, after a minute or
two, "have you any objection to our smoking
in this carriage?"

"I'd like to see you at it! " was the grim
response.

"Your wish, sir," answered my friend, "is
our law." And his cigar was alight in a
twinkling.

"Have a weed yourself, sir?" said Goit,
generously; but he did not dare look the
infuriated animal in the face.

For my part, I had enough to do in the
judicious management of my Havanna; for,
although I smoked regularly at that time
because it was forbidden, the amusement
nearly always made me ill. So I said
nothing.

Presently Darall produced a pack of cards,
and appealed to our companion's sense of
duty to induce him to take a hand at whist,
"For otherwise," he pathetically concluded,
"we shall be positively reduced to play
dummy."

"Never mind, young gentlemen—never
mind," was the answer; "we shall see when
we get to Reigate who has got the laugh on
their side."

On approaching that station we prudently
threw away our cigars. And not too soon;
for the instant we reached the platform, the
white bear rushed between us, and, putting
his head out of the window, called lustily
for the guard. "I give! " said he, with
immense excitement; "I give these boys in
charge, for smoking in my carriage!"

"Gentlemen! what have you to say to
this?" said the official.

"Simply," replied Darall, while I
shuddered at his presence of mind; "simply, that
it was not we who were smoking at all—it
was the white gentleman himself—smell him.
Is it not so?"

We assented to this monstrous statement
with eagerness.

"And, moreover," continued our leader,
"he wanted us to play at cards with him for
money!"

At this the old gentleman absolutely
foamed at the mouth. This gave a colour to
our next proceeding, which was to tap our
foreheads with our forefingers, and to whisper
in chorus, "He is mad, we think!" The
foe, being overpowered by weight of evidence,
and in the state we had described him to be,
got straightway into another carriage.

I told Aunt Dorothy these circumstances,
and she said we ought all three to have been
well whipped—perhaps, indeed, it was for my
sins on that occasion that I have been so
unfortunate in my railway companions since.
I have been twice in my life shut up with
a stark staring madman; one of them
particularly stark, inasmuch as he had not a
single article of clothing on, except his boots
and an enormous cavalry cloak, which he
took an early opportunity of dispensing with
There were several other people present,
however, and he was secured without much
resistance. But the other business was a far
more serious one. I was seated in a first-
class carriage of an express train about to
start from Paddington, when, to me, as the
plays say, entered a tall gentleman, with his
coat buttoned tightly over his chest in the
military style, and apparently padded in
front. Directly we began to move he asked