left his business in a bad way, and she and a
family of children were on the verge of ruin.
Mordant gave her fifty pounds, which was little
to him and much to her. She learned his fix, and
wrote to her husband's brother, who had been
some time in New York, full particulars. She
described him too. I suppose she must have
said his arms and legs were long enough to tie
in a bow-knot, for the brother-in-law knew him
as soon as he clapped eyes on him. The
brother-in-law has a confidential place in the
police, and he is an important person just now.
He came on board the Persia with his sister's
letter in his hand, and marched Mordant off,
like he had arrested him, and gave him the best
room in his nice house over by Tompkins-square,
where Mordant is in clover."

"Has Mrs. Pendleton any trouble?" I inquired.

"I reckon not now; but she has been scared
out of a year's growth to-day. When I was
coming over here, I was intercepted at the ferry-house
by Mrs. Jezebel Avery. She was watching
at the window, and saw me passing, and
stopped me to tell a pitiful story. ' Only think,
Mr. Grierson, I have been robbed! My brooch
— my diamond brooch— worth a thousand
dollars! I put it into my pocket-book before
I left Mrs. Pendleton's. I had been over
to see the poor lonesome little soul, and I
had ten dollars beside in my porte-monnaie,
and I carried it in my hand for fear my
pocket would be picked. When I come on to
the boat, there was a company of soldiers and
a lot of recruits all crowding like sheep, and
somebody trod on the flounces of my skirt behind,
and when I looked back, somebody
snatched the pocket-book. The soldiers and
the ragged recruits was all mixed up, and they
was drunk, and the boat was no place for a
lady. I could not find out who did it, and I
got a policeman this side, and I'm a waitin'. ' I
left her 'a waitin',' and I found that Mrs.
Pendleton had been robbed, too, and dreadfully
frightened too. Before we left the Persia,
Mrs. Pendleton gaye me her gold and jewels for
safe keeping, and I gave her two five-dollar
green backs. Mrs. Jezebel called, and came up
unannounced, and frightened our little friend with
the information that Avery was going to report
all suspicious characters. ' Now, I think, Mrs.
Pendleton,' said Jezebel, 'if you would give him
something he wouldn't say nothin' about you or
your prayer-book. He's awful greedy of money,
and I think you have a good likelihood to buy
him off.' The end of it all was, that Jezebel walked
off with the ten dollars, and also a little garnet
pin that Mrs. Pendleton fastened her collar
with. Jezebel thought it was a ruby and brilliants,
and worth ten guineas; but it happened
to be garnet and paste, and worth ten shillings.
She transferred it to her scraggy neck, and put
her brooch in her pocket-book, and lost it and
the green backs. I should like to give the
soldier that robbed her a premium for hislight-fingered performance."

For weeks and weeks after I left my friends
at the Columbia House, in Jersey City, I longed
to hear of their fate. They had disappeared, and
made no sign beyond a mysterious rose-coloured
note from Mrs. Pendleton, who thanked me
warmly for kindnesses which I really had not
done her, for want of opportunity. She said
she was to leave Jersey City next day after
writing, and bade me farewell with much feeling.
This was all.

It seemed to me several centuries after this,
when I found myself one evening on the muddy
banks of the Ohio, within the district governed
by General Burnside. I thought I had enough
to contend with in the mud, which was deep and
tenacious; but my difficulties, with darkness,
rain, and impossibility of finding any vehicle to
carry me, were complicated by my being arrested.
The general was making a microscopic examination
for traitors. Why should I be out in such
a horrible night, in such horrible rain and mud,
floundering in the darkness, minus one boot, if
I were not a spy? Why indeed? I have not
answered the question to myself yet. I said
when I was arrested, like a cheerful philosopher,
"Now I shall get on!" I did get on to a good
hotel in the city of Cincinnati, and there the
first person who greeted me as I entered with
my captors was Jeremiah. Both he and Muster
threw themselves upon my bosom with the impulsive
joy of genuine Americans, and when it
appeared that I was under arrest, it also appeared
in ten minutes more, that I was not a
prisoner, but the guest of a man having authority.
I was at once invested in clean, dry
clothes, and made most comfortable. For Jeremiah
was in high position.

"I am as glad to see you as the dorg," again
exclaimed Jeremiah, almost shaking my arm
from my shoulder, and then sitting down by me,
with Muster laying his headfirst on his knee and
then on mine. " They are all safe in Charleston.
I saw Pendleton meet his wife and babies,
and I left him and them in good health.
It was worth a cargo of quinine to see them
meet. The bishop and Mordant, they got safe
home, too. I left them all in good heart. The
last words Mordant said to me were, ' When I
write another piece for the Times, they'll print
it.' Shouldn't wonder! Well, I'm for the
Union and the old flag, and I am as glad to
see you as the dorg. Now for a ten o'clock
supper and champagne. What a storm it is, to
be sure, to-night! The streets run rivers. We'll
get up an opposition Niagara of sparkling
Catawba. Can't do better, I reckon!"

   THE UNCOMMERCIAL TRAVELLER,
    A New Series of Occasional Papers
              By CHARLES DICKENS
     WILL BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.