"You fool, this is all nonsense. These are not real jewels; they only exist in your imagination." My real self arguing thus with my hashish self, which I could see, tired, ragged, and weeping, set me to laughing still harder, and then we laughed together-my two selves. Suddenly my real self faded away, and a cloud of sadness and misery settled upon me, and I wept again, throwing myself hysterically upon the damp floor of the cave. Just then I heard a voice addressing me by name, and looking up, I saw an old man with an enormous nose bending over me. His nose seemed almost as large as his whole body. "Why do you weep, my son?" he said; "are you sad because you cannot have all these riches? Don't, then, for some day you will learn that whoso hath more wealth than is needed to minister to his wants must suffer for it. Every farthing above a certain reasonable sum will surely bring some worry, care, anxiety, or trouble. Three diamonds are your share; be content with them. But, dear me, here I am again neglecting my work! Here it is March, and I'm not half through yet!" "Pray what is your work, venerable patriarch?" I asked; "and why has the Lord given you such a huge proboscis?" "Ah! I see that you don't know me," he replied. "I am the chemist of the earth's bowels, and it is my duty to prepare all the sweet and delicate odours that the flowers have. I am busy all winter making them, and early in the spring my nymphs and apprentices deliver them to the Queen of the Flowers, who in turn gives them to her subjects. My nose is a little large because I have to do so much smelling. Come and see my laboratory." His nose a little large! I laughed until I almost cried at this, while following him. He opened a door, and entering, my nostrils met the oddest medley of odours I had ever smelled. Everywhere workmen with huge noses were busy mixing, filtering, distilling, and the like. "Here," said the old man, "is a batch of odour that has been spoiled. Mistakes are frequent, but I find use for even such as that. The Queen of Flowers gives it to disobedient plants or flowers. You mortals call it asafoetida. Come in here and see my organ;" and he led the way into a large rocky room, at one end of which was a huge organ of curious construction. Mounting to the seat, he arranged the stops and began to play. Not a sound could be heard, but a succession of odours swept past me, some slowly, some rapidly. I understood the grand idea in a moment. Here was music to which that of sound was coarse and earthly. Here was a harmony, a symphony, of odours! Clear and sharp, intense and less intense, sweet, less sweet, and again still sweeter, heavy and light, fast and slow, deep and narcotic, the odours, all in perfect harmony, rose and fell, and swept by me, to be succeeded by others. Irresistibly I began to weep, and fast and thick fell the tears, until I found myself a little stream of water, that, rising in the rocky caverns of the mountain, dashed down its side into the plain below. Fiercely the hot sun beat upon my scanty waters, and like a thin grey mist I found myself rising slowly into the skies, no longer a stream. With other clouds I was swept away by the strong and rapid wind far across the Atlantic, over the burning sand wastes of Africa, dipping toward the Arabian Sea, and suddenly falling in hugh raindrops into the very heart of India, blossoming with poppies. As the ground greedily sucked up the refreshing drops I again assumed my form. Suddenly the earth was rent apart, and falling upon the edge of a deep cavern, I saw far below me a molten, hissing sea of fire, above which a dense vapour hung. Issuing from this mist, a thousand anguished faces rose toward me on scorched and broken wings, shrieking and moaning as they came. "Who in Heaven's name are these poor things?" 66 These," said a voice at my side, “are the spirits, still incarnate, of individuals who, during life, sought happiness in the various narcotics. Here, after death, far beneath, they live a life of torture most exquisite, for it is their fate, ever suffering for want of moisture, to be obliged to yield day by day their life-blood to form the juice of poppy and resin of hemp in order that their dreams, joys, hopes, pleasures, pains, and anguish of past and present may again be tasted by mortals." As he said this I turned to see who he the hemp-smokers, were once more recogwas, but he had disappeared. Suddenly nised. I heard a fierce clamour, felt the scrawny arms of these foul spirits wound about my neck, in my hair, on my limbs, pulling me over into the horrible chasm, into the heart of hell, crying, shrilly, "Come! thou art one of us. Come! come! come!" I struggled fiercely, shrieked out in my agony, and suddenly awoke, with the cold sweat thick upon me. "Are you, then, so fond of it that nothing can awaken you? Here have I been shaking and pulling you for the past five minutes. Come, rouse yourself; your dreams seem to be unpleasant." Gradually my senses became clearer. The odours of the room, the melodies of early evening, the pipe that had fallen from my hand, the faces and forms of My companion wished me to stay, assuring me that I would see many queer sights before morning, but I declined, and after taking, by his advice, a cup of Paraguay tea (cocoa leaf), and then a cup of sour lemonade, I passed down-stairs, exchanged my present for my former dress, returned my pipe, and left the house. The dirty streets, the tinkling carhorse bell, the deafening “Here you are! twenty sweet oranges for a quarter! and the drizzling rain were more grateful by far than the odours, sounds, and sights, sweet though they were, that I had just left. Truly it was the cradle of dreams rocking placidly in the very heart of a great city, translated from Bagdad to Gotham. “HE CESAR AND HIS FORTUNES. the yellow wheat stubble interspersed with shocks of the unthreshed grain; the heat quivered in quick fluttering pulsations above the dark green corn fields. All was perfectly peaceful. Not a sign of a grey-coat anywhere. Not a human being in sight as I entered the cove except two or three slumbering field hands resting after dinner under the shade of a tree some distance off. And yes, I was mistaken, there was a small negro boy whom I now spied standing on the extreme outer end of the long wharf. A basket at his feet, the sun pouring down on his flat uncovered head, while he shaded his eyes with one hand that he might the better fix his gaze on the gun-boats lying in the river. As I approached I found he was singing softly to himself in a mechanical sort of fashion. The strain grew louder as I came nearer; his attention, too, was so engrossed that I was alongside the wharf as yet entirely unperceived. All at once, as I rested on my oars, looking at him, he broke out in full voice, rich and mellow as a fine contralto: E is simply the best servant I ever | It was very hot: the thermometer hangsaw," I remarked to the Commo- ing in my cabin showed 93, the sun dore, speaking of Cæsar, as we smoked shone down from a cloudless sky upon our after-dinner cigars on the veranda together. "Where did you get him?" "What! did you never hear?" he cried. "I've known you for six months, and my wife there will have it that I tell everybody within twenty-four hours' acquaintance. I'll tell you about it. It's rather a singular story. In the summer of 1862" (here his wife, rising, left us to ourselves), "when I was a young lieutenant-commander, after the fights between the Monitor and the Merrimac, the gun-boat I commanded lay for two lays near the mouth of the Rappahannock, awaiting the arrival of another gun-boat, which had been cruising about in the vicinity of Fredericksburg. The second day-a scorching one in Julyfinding it very dull on board, with nothing to do, and thinking to reconnoitre a bit, I had a boat lowered, and rowed off toward the village of Urbanna, just in sight, which was situated on the shores of a beautiful little cove, connecting by a narrow passage with the river. The principal street terminated in a very long wharf which extended to the centre of this cove, affording accommodation to steamboats and large vessels which its shallow waters would not permit to approach nearer the shore. "Cyah'ss my eyes up t' de sky, I do belong to de Union ban', I do belong to de Union ban". "A pause. Then, Helloa, there!' I cried, at the same time reaching upward for one of the wharf posts wherewith to steady myself as I stood up in the boat to speak with him. I missed my aim, just at the moment I hailed him, the boat shooting in an instant under the overhanging sides of the pier out of his sight. Looking aloft through a small hole in the planks, I could see that he had been greatly startled. He gave a sort of a spring backward, nearly overturning his basket as he did so, and peering around hither and thither in search of the invisible caller, while he muttered: "Good thing I done tuk dat ah baskit off my hade!' Then, raising his voice, Who dat holleh?" Perfect silence. Then, Who was it, I say?' 6 "I kept still, wickedly enjoying his perplexity, when, still looking about him, and seeing nothing, his eyes began to distend. 666 Mighty like evil,' he muttered, 'cep'in' don' no evils come dis soon in de mawnin; evils is night-hawks.' "I still gave no sign of my vicinity; so presently he returned to the contemplation of the gun-boat, soliloquising: Lawdy! don' I wush I could git on boa'd one dem dah t'ings! I'd-' "Helloa, there!' I cried again, interrupting him, as I pushed out from under the wharf. When he saw me his eyes grew bigger than ever, and giving one quick glance at my uniform, he snatched up his basket, and was for making off, when I called him to stop, adding, 'Don't you want to sell berries?' your "He halted then, and recollecting his manners, pulled his sunburned forelock, as he stammered, in much trepidation, "Y-yea, seh; mammy done sont y'all down to Maws Tom Pahma's sto' to sell um fu heh.' I haven't any sugar with me, and I'd like to have them for my dinner. Look here.' I drew out a bright silver halfdollar, and held it up to him. I guess she'd as lief have the money. Wouldn't she?' "His eyes began to glisten; the circulation of metallic currency was already a thing of the past in the South, and reaching out his hand at once for the coin, he grinned his entire acquiescence to the proposal before declaring: "Lawdy, yeas, Maws Yankee Soljeh ; oh, yeas, seh. But dese sha's wah times, an' sto's do'n' 'low no sulva money. Mammy glad to git Yankee money, cert'n.' "Well, then, it's a bargain. Here's your Yankee money. Now give me the berries.' "I'bleeged t'kyah de baskit back,' he said, as I was extending my hand for it. 66 The basket! I hadn't thought of that. What was I to do? I had nothing with me into which I could bestow my anticipated dessert. I glanced down into the boat. Nothing there, except a heap of regulation blankets and an oil-cloth overcoat which had been carelessly left huddled together at the bow. Oh, for a receptacle of some kind! I could not bear to relinquish those big, lusciouslooking berries, I had been living on salt food for so long, and yet In my perplexity, looking about me, all on a sudden iny attention was caught by the swinging sign of the little country store beyond the wharf, at the entrance of the village. I might be able to buy a bucket or a pail there. Well thought of! 666 Here, my boy. What's your name?' "Casa', maws.' 6 "Well, Cæsar, I'd like you to stay here and watch this boat' (I made her fast to a stake as I spoke), while I go ashore to buy a pail to hold my blackberries. I'll be back in fifteen or twenty minutes at furthest. Wait here until then. Don't leave the boat on any account, and don't let any one touch her. D'ye hear?' "I had already climbed up the side of the wharf (after first taking the precaution to pocket the half-dollar), and was walking rapidly away, when, with the same deliberation which had characterised his former replies, he drawled out after me: 6 "I was not risking much in leaving the boat in his charge, after all. The whole country for miles around looked deserted. The entire male population, with the exception of a few very old and decrepit men, of whom Maws Tom Pahma' furnished a sample, had gone off with the Confederate army. And the women and children kept well withindoors so long as we remained anchored in sight. I soon reached the shop, where I made my purchase-a common painted wooden water-bucket-and fearing I had already loitered too long, I left the building, and was about to return at once to the gig, when I happened to spy, just outside, lurking behind a tree, the very boy whom I had left on the wharf, standing there with my basket of blackberries on his head, having followed me, I suppose, at his leisure. I accosted him at once: 666 What made you leave the boat? What are you doing here?' I asked, with some asperity. "But he put on a look of most innocent bewilderment. 666 Mammy sont y'all to de sto' to sell dese sha blackbays.' "Yes, so you told me before; but you've already sold them to me. What made you leave the boat?' I repeated. "I di'n' leave no boat; I ain't been nigh de wata. I com' f'om home. Mammy sont y'all down to Maws Tom Pahma's sto'; Maws Tom he 'low poun' suga' fu' dese sha' black bays,' he drawled, even slower than before. 666 My And "As he spoke I glanced down the length of the wharf; the boy had disappeared; and this was he, of course, beyond the shadow of a doubt. senses could not so deceive me. bringing my gaze to bear on his face I surveyed him sternly. Was it imagination, or did I detect a lurking expression of mischief playing about his mouth? You little rascal! I cried, losing all patience as I concluded that I did, ‘do you mean to have the audacity to persist in asserting you are not the boy I left in charge of my boat not ten minutes ago? I've a great mind to give you the rope'send. I would do it if I had one convenient, you little liar.' 66 He was, for his years, such a seasoned hypocrite that I had a great mind to fall abroad of him then and there, but at that moment my glance wandered inadvertently toward the river. I caught sight of the black smoke-stack of the gun-boat we were expecting. My presence on board my own boat was absolutely necessary in the event of her arrival. I could tarry no longer, and, speeding away down the long pier, I left him still gazing after me with his eyes widely opened, astonished, and tearful. As I proceeded along it occurred to me that there might be two of them, after all, since such a youngster would scarcely have the wit to think of such a name as Pompey as a companion piece to Cæsar. Pshaw! it was only a name with which he was familiar, for, as I reached the end of the wharf where I had left him, he had disappeared. Not a sign of him anywhere, except two or three spilled blackberries. I looked all about me-down at my boat lying where I had left her, and under the wharf. Nobody in sight. So it must have been "His eyes widened more and more, as he who had followed me, and played tho I had seen them do on the wharf. 'Yes, I know; but you agreed just now to let me have them for half a dollar. Here's your money. Quick, I've, no time to lose.' "As he still remained motionless and staring, I caught the basket from his hand, poured its contents into my bucket -he wearing the most amusing look of utter amazement and consternation the while then thrusting the money into his hand, I said: "Now go home, and see that your mother gets the money. I'm afraid you're a very bad boy, Cæsar.' "Dis ain't Cæsa', maws. You's mistookin. I-I's Pompey. Casa' done 'scape clean 'way f'om me down yond' de road f'om de gret house t' 'Bauna.' part of a double so well. "The young scamp!' I muttered, as I descended into the gig and began pulling toward the river. But for my promptitude in seizing these berries he would have regularly done me; 'twas well I spied him there at the village.' "Ten minutes' easy pulling brought me alongside the gun-boat, and I presently found myself on board, with so much to do that I very soon banished all thoughts of my recent experience, since the new gun-boat I had descried had now arrived within speaking distance, with the intelligence that we were to proceed together at once to Washington, via Baltimore, there to await further instructions. So we weighed anchor at five o'clock, and by ten that evening were well out of the river, with the Chesapeake Bay spread before us. "Just about that time-at ten o'clock, I mean-one of the men, occupied with some work in the vicinity of the aft cabin, came running up from below to the deck, were a party of us were seated. "A strange sound there certainly was. I could now hear it plainly. So two of us descended the ladder at once, followed by the man. The sound grew louder as we approached the officers' cabin, then suddenly ceased as I called for a light and we proceeded thither. "It was perfectly still and apparently empty when we entered, but as I walked across to the berths to begin my search I stumbled, and nearly fell over some obstacle which seemed to resolve itself into a soft warm substance with as many tentacles as a cuttle-fish, and employing them all to adhere tenaciously to my knees. Looking downward in some alarm, while I held the light aloft, the better to discover the nature of this singular impediment, I was perfectly electrified to behold the ubiquitous Cæsar, whom I thought I had left miles behind, now making a perfect Laocoon of himself as he clung with all four limbs to my legs, his head thrown back, and his big black eyes fixed with an indescribable expression on my face. It was himself, and not another. I recognised him at once. Moreover, beside him on the floor was the basket of blackberries-mine and yet not mine, for we had eaten those I had brought with me-the ones I had seized from Cæsar-from Pompey, I mean. There were two of them, then, after all. But how had this one gotten on board? I put the question to him. "Oh, Lawdy, Maws Yankee Soljehoh, Lawdy, maws! I woan' do so no mo'. I-I gwine home t' mammy dis vay minnit.' 66 Which, with countless sobs and asseverations, was the only reply I could elicit. "I gwine home now,' he repeated again and again. "Go home! you little rascal. I wish you could. You're half-way down the bay now. How did you get here? Who brought you?" 666 "[Sob, sob.] You did, maws' [sob]. I did! Come, don't trifle with me, you scamp. I won't stand it.' "[Sob.] Yeas, maws, you did [sob]. I slid down side de whahf while you's gone to Maws Tom Pahma's sto', an'-an' I hid 'hind de blankits an' t'ings in de boat tell you come an' git in. Oh, Lawdy, maws, please, seh, doan' kill me.' "It was true, I had pulled him to the gun-boat with me, concealed underneath the heap of blankets in the bow; and once arrived at the ship, after the gig was hauled up alongside, he had probably watched his opportunity, when no one was around, and had stolen forth from his hiding-place with his berries as a peace-offering in case he should be discovered, and had made his way down into the cabin to investigate the inside of a Yankee soljeh boat,' as he called it, trusting to luck to find a way back to the village. The rest of his narrative was somewhat incoherent. He had become interested in the things around him, and had looked about him for some time, always taking care to creep under the shelter of the berths when he heard any one approaching. The last time he had done so it was very warm, he was tired and hungry, and—and— "When he awakened it was to find everything dark and strange and lonely, and the room moving along, which latter circumstance impressed him as being so awful that he began to cry aloud, thus accounting for the mysterious sound deemed so portentous. It took a long |