the expenses. We would have them satisfy themselves on this point; though we deem it no very creditable feature in their case, that they have been induced to raise an outcry against a title, which, if impeached, destroys their own-that title being one of the very oldest in the whole country, accompanied all the while by possession, and to which not a human being in the wide world sets up an adverse claim! And there is another topic which they would do well to refer to the opinions of the same advisers whom they should employ to look after the title. We mean the question of taxing the rents. It has been a common thing, time out of mind, in leases and deeds reserving rent, to stipulate for a net sum as rent, after all taxes should be paid on the lands out of which the rent issues. Such are the contracts in Rensselaerwyck. There is a covenant for the payment of all taxes by the purchasers, and this was a part of the entire contract for the purchase, and was considered in fixing the amount of rent. Rent is "a profit issuing out of land," and is, as we suppose, necessarily taxed with the land out of which it issues. It is real property, and not personal. Let them take questions of this sort out of the hands of politicians and demagogues. Let them withdraw their privafe affairs from the public, or from parties, which have nothing to do with them, and are the worst counselors they can have. These are matters of private bargain, and if the two parties cannot agree together, then mutual friends, or arbitration, or the law, should settle their controversies. But we would have those who owe rents keep out of the law, if they can, just as we would have them, by all means, keep out of rebellion. Controversy gratifies passion, and creates misery, much oftener than it brings advantage to any party.

And it is no way to soften creditors' hearts, if they chance to be hard, to make war upon them. If creditors are exacting and severe, and yet keep within their contracts, there is no help for it—except to purchase an escape as soon as possible. Debtors are the equals of their creditors, while they keep the faith of their bargains with them. Dependence and servitude commence when a breach occurs. We want to see those who owe rent, maintain their complete independence. Rent-payers may keep themselves on an equality with rent-owners forever. There may, indeed, be cases where there is an utter inability to pay; and especially where unpaid rents have been suffered to accumulate; but even here, a quarrel with an ungracious landlord, if any such there should be, would only make matters worse, and not better. God help the poor, if they must needs add hatred, and envy, and malice, and strife, to the necessary evils of poverty. It need not be so. Let them try what virtue there is in gentleness and contentment, combined with a frank and manly spirit, as becomes good men and good citizens. If they are op pressed, the world will find it out, and its sympathies, springing warm from ten thousand bosoms, will be quick to console, and quick to avenge them. Let them leave their oppressors, if they have such, to the silent but expressive scorn of a virtuous and humane community, and from which no wealth can purchase an exemption. We believe, that those whose case we have now been considering, have little to complain of or to apprehend on this score. The honest fulfilment of just contracts is what is required of them, and without which all sympathy with them is only an insult and

a curse.

Ir would have amused one-had there not been something in its exhibition too strong and fierce to be laughed at to witness the unavailing, champing, foaming fury of the Colonel, as the retreating figure of his enemy was lost in the darkness. He fired his gun twice after him, even when he was far enough out of view. Then stamping and shouting, he dashed the butt of his precious "sixshooter" against the ground, to the evident peril of its strength. He was rushing back, swearing he intended to make his way to the old madame, and speak his mind to her, in no very measured terms, about harboring and encouraging a vil lain like Agatone, to the peril and annoyance of her neighbors, when the great gate of the court was slammed heavily in his face, and the bolts drawn. He dashed his broad shoulders against it like a mad buffalo, and bellowed and roared in his baffled wrath, about as mu sically as that animal would have done, when, in its blind fury, it had crushed its horns against some sturdy oak, behind which its subtle assailant-the hunterhad glided. But it all would not avail! The massive gate was no more to be moved than would the strong oak have been. And after expending his strength in what the western men call "rearing and charging," until he was perfectly exhausted, he listened to my entreaties, and consented to start for home. The man was dreadfully excited, and stag. gered as we descended the hill. The night had been very dark when I came over; but "glimpses of the moon” visited us now, occasionally, through rifted clouds, which, in vast, gloomy and ragged masses, were careering as if-pos. sessed by the winged life of fear-they fled across the heavens silently from some weird foe. There has always been something awful to me in the noiseless hurrying of these black mighty phantoms. Haste--haste! faster-faster! they seem to say, as one huge shape rushes upon another and yet no sound! The ear expects it! you listen for the crash!

But no! your heart beats very loudthere is no voice from that great driving chaos! The silent majesty of motion! the mute Power that whirls, through burning mazes, the fire-dance of stars, is seen and felt in the sublimity of strength in such a scene.

When we were a short distance from the house, I heard the quick patter of feet pursuing. Before I could look behind, the boy, John, throwing himself rapidly past in a bounding somerset, was standing face to face a few paces in front of us.

"Get out of my way!" growled the Colonel furiously, striking at him. “You hell-cat-you skunk-you musk-rat! you smell of Mexicans; and if you are white, that only makes it worse! A white boy to permit his carcase to be kicked and cuffed about like a slunk pig, by the Mexicans! You ought to go and starve with the wolves first! I'd pick a buzzard's bones with my teeth rather! Don't get in my reach, or I'll stamp you into the earth!"

The boy-who seemed desperately afraid of the bear in his surly moodsby leaping and rolling together, down the hill, had placed himself far enough out of reach in an instant.

66 But, Kurnal," he said, from his safe position, in cowed, whining accents, "I jist comed to tell yer

"You lie, you bat! you have lied to me and to the Mexicans both! I don't want to hear you. Clear out, I say !” 1 And he jerked his gun up to his face.

The woods fairly trembled to his angry roar. The boy, quick as lightning, threw himself on the ground, and, rolling off the last bank, the next moment we heard the splash of his strugglings with the dark rapid waters.

"Colonel, the boy will drown: see what your stupid anger has done!"

"Drown! There's no hope of that; you'd as well talk of drowning a mink. I wish there was some chance for it!"

By this time I had reached the bank the boy had been standing on, and which

overlooked the bed of the river. By the faint light on the ripples, I could distinguish a small black object, about thirty paces below me, which seemed to be moving rapidly down the middle of the current. With a splash, it instantly disappeared under the water as I came in view; and though I ran down the edge of the stream for some distance, and called to him eagerly, I could hear and see nothing more. I felt somewhat alarmed for the boy's life; for the river, besides being deep and swift, was full of sharp snags.

The Colonel called after me with a jeering "Haw! haw! you are throwing away trouble and losing sweat for nothing there! I tell you, you green-horn, a hundred men couldn't drown him in

that river!"

I stopped to wait till he should come up-for the log we were to cross on was some distance farther down. Just before he joined me, I thought I could distinguish the sound of snapping twigs on the other side, but the gloom under the heavy forest was too impenetrable to distinguish anything. I said nothing about it, thinking it might be some wild animal, and we walked on. I remonstrated angrily with him about the brutal impolicy of his treatment of the boy, for he evidently had something of importance to communicate-but I might as well have spent my breath to the trees; for he seemed to have forgotten the very existence of John, and I could get nothing out of him but threats and curses about Agatone and old Madame Cavillo. We had now arrived at the log. I have before spoken of this perilous passage; and going down it from this side was worse than climbing it from the other. We stopped, and the Colonel, who was accustomed to the passage, proposed to go first and show me how to cross. While we stood for a moment to sling our guns over our shoulders, we were startled by a stealthy rustle and cracking in the woods beyond. The moon had just thrown a pale gleam of light upon our figures and upon the log. We both stepped instantly back into the shade and listened breathlessly. The low howl of a wolf very close to us swung dismally out on the stillness. We drew our breaths again; at the same moment we heard a voice which I recognized for John's, and which seemed to be some distance off, singing :

"The red wolf says, whoo-ooh! whoo-ah! The robber says, whoo-ooh! whoo-ooh! Look out! look out! a trigger's thar; Look out! it will be pulled on you!"

I suspected what the warning meant at once, and endeavored to stop the Colonel, who was hurrying towards the log again, with the exclamation, "Pish! it's nothing but a wolf and that cursed boy again!"-but it was too late. Just as he stepped into the moonlight, a long phizz-ziz and a bright flash, from the dense shadows on the other side, were followed by a heavy thumping report, such as a Mexican fusee always makes. The Colonel sprang back with the exclamation, "Ha! it blowed, did it!" while I, who was somewhat prepared by my previous suspicions, fired instantly at the flash! The Colonel started down the log at a run, but the same drizzling rain which had dampened the powder of the assassin and made the gun hang fire, had made the log slippery; and his headlong leaps had carried him more than half across the trembling bridge, when his foot slipped and he was plunged into the water. I followed without an instant's reflection, and with perhaps more instinctive caution, and reached the other side in safety. The Colonel shouted to me, sputtering the mud and water from his mouth- Follow that fellow, I'm safe or will be when I get out!" It occurred to me that he was quite able to take care of himself, so I followed at full speed in the direction of the retreating footsteps. It was too late though-and after nearly knocking the side of my face off against a tree, and having my head nearly jerked from my shoulders by thorny vines it was impossible to guard against in the dark, I halted pretty much out of breath, and nothing the wiser for my chase, though something the worsefor I could feel hot drops trickling down my neck, and the sting of the sharp thorns that had been dragged across it. After a short time I heard the Colonel approaching, plunging and tearing through the bushes like a worried bear through cane-brakes. By the time he reached me, he was pretty well done up; the sudden ducking had very thoroughly cooled him off, and he now began to feel the bruises he had received, and the reaction of the various excitements of the evening, and for a little while was comparatively tame. It now occurred to me, for the first time, to wonder what had

become of Texas. I asked the Colonel what he thought of it. He answered me, between his long pantings," Pooh! never mind Texas!" Three or four pants and a long-drawn breath-" That cursed Agatone!"-pant-“ thought he had me!" Panting Too much occupied with hugging that fat-" Long breaths again -Set him there to plug me on that log, did he!" Still louder and hoarser, catching his breath Ooh! I could tear him with my teeth!" A longer pause"Texas wouldn't hear the guns, and don't know anything about it-I must stop and rest!" Down he dropped upon a log. "If that gun hadn't blowed, I'd 'av been a gone'er, sure! Why didn't you hit ""

"I did my best, you know." "Yes, yes; but why wa'n't your best better?"

"You are unreasonable as usual, man. It was all guess-work, in the dark!"

Yes, he'll come out as soon as he gets tired of the dance, and the girl, and the liquor. You and he must start tomorrow at day-break and bring Hays. We'll hunt this Agatone this time to the death, or I'll leave the country! No I won't-I'll catch him. We can't help catching him; Hays and the Bravo are perfect bloodhounds. I'll follow him across the Rio Grande but I'll have him! I'll kill my horse!-I'll walk till my feet give out—then I'll crawl on my knees across the desert prairie and chaw snails to live on-but I'll have him! Hell! I'll hunt him into its black jaws but I'll lap his heart's blood!" And, calling down a terrible imprecation on his own head if he didn't do all this, he sprang to his feet and said, abruptly,

66

Oh, jest sneakin' around! Anything er stirrin'?"

"I tell you, boy, yes; I have just taken a pop at Agatone. One of his men took one at me down on the log. Did you hear the gun?"

"Jest as usual; one er them yaller stinks can't hit a bluff-side! I hearn the gun-thought thar were sumthen out. Who is this?" turning to me.

"Oh, that's Kentuck; we're going to make something of him; he stands powder well, but wants a heap of practice."

"He! he! gin us yer feelers, Kentuck; we'll work the buttermilk outen yer! Glad yer come! From old Tennersee myself, and them's close sisterine yer know. Turn that meat thar, Kern! You keeps mighty triflin' fires; but you poor creaturs where live in houses can't have a fire like men ought'er. Squat yourselves, boys, and make yerselves at home while I'm er'eatin'; I ain't tuck nothin' since yester' evenin', and then I tuck it raw dry, 'cause a fire wa'n't safe!"

"Fresh signs?" asked the Colonel, as he stooped and cut a great slice from the venison ham which was spitted before the fire.

"I could'er almost smelt 'em!" said Bill, as he went through the same ma

nœuvre.

66

"I found yer coffee, Kern, though yer does keep it in a cussed sly place. Mexicans bad, are they? Mighty bad thing, havin' people livin' 'bout, jest ter thieve."

But the Colonel's jaws were too busy by this time for farther talk, and he merely nodded his head. Bill, who had now, too, cut off a slice of meat weighing about a pound from the ham, and passed it on, with a significant look, to me, then seized upon the quart-cup of coffee, which was simmering hot, and commenced in solemn silence his meal. Now, amidst the deep stillness, broken only by the doleful sound of the voices of night without, and the crashing of their heavy grinders, let us take a good, look at Bill Johnson-the boy, as the Colonel called him. And a rough seeming customer was he-worth taking a second look at especially if you felt any temptation to cross his track. He was upward of six feet four in height; an angular, loose-jointed figure, that looked as if it had been thrown together by a pitchfork, and did not care whether it stayed thrown together or not; his bones, though, were prodigiously massive, and his hand felt

to me like lead. There was not the sixtieth part of a grain of surplus flesh upon him. His tendons, muscles, and even veins, were as rigorously defined as if they had been cut in granite. Upon his wide, massy shoulders was set a very small head, with a fleece of close-curled black hair. His features were small and well-shaped, with a full, frank black eye; his skin, stretched so tight as it was over the bones, reminded me, in color and consistence, of a drum-head. He was dressed in a black, greasy buckskin suit, "a world too wide," which appeared as though it had weathered a thousand storms, and kept pace with the progressive tanning of his own cuticle. In a word, sun and winds, perils by flood and field, and starvation, all together, had hardened the man into a perfect whalebone state! He had lain aside his wolf-skin cap and bullet-pouch, and in the belt of his hunting-shirt were stuck four or five knives of different sizes and lengths, and a brace of long rifle-pistols. The chargers of alligators' teeth hung at his breast, along with the coiled wire tube-picker. Of beard, he had none : whether he had plucked it out, as the Indians do, or never had one, I cannot tell. But such as he is this was Bill Johnson, the guide, hunter, trapperthe man who knew, as well as he knew the features of "Old Sue," his rifle, every peak along the chain of the Rocky Mountains-who visited Astoria merely as a pleasure-jaunt to see the boys, and hug his old friends the grizzly bears who luxuriated his summers at the Steamboat Springs, with his head upon the lap of his Delilah-a captured Blackfeet squaw who took Santa Fé as "mine inn" on his way to spend the winter on the pampas of California-who was proof against wind, and hail, and all tornadoes, and joyed

"On the snow-wreath to battle with the wolf"

whose hide could glance the arrow of a Sioux-whose eye would see the condor first, and rifle bring him from his icy peaks whose spring was agile as the long-fleeced goat's—whose foot was tireless as the Huron runner's-who could outstarve the raven, and look greasy where the jackalls died--whose fist could crush a puma's skull-whose stab was quicker than the thought of death-whose

hate was greedy as an eagle's mawwhose face was mild and simple as a country boy's-whose heart was frank as any maiden's, and quite as free of guile-who worshiped God unconsciously in daily walk and converse with his grandeur, yet would have laughed at all religions! Such was Bill Johnson; and so are many others of those majestic natures, whose souls grow like the shadows of the mountain ridge they walk beneath-" wild above rule or art"rugged but sublime! And yet that man's hand was red, and many a ruthless blow of retributive vengeance it had struck. Society would shudder at the bare recital of many a deed he had smiled in doing. Yet, while in your "fenced cities" you have the gallows your huge castellated prisons, your houses of discipline, your narrow cells where, shut from the free air and holy sun, the wretched sinner against your laws must tell the weary seconds on through years, until the inward light goes out and death strikes twice-you should not find fault with these men, to whom "conscience is as for a law" you have given them none; and since the systems you boast of, and have framed in pride, offer you no alternative but to make justice an executioner, blame them not if, as they have no ideal incorporation on which to throw the blame-to which they can say, "on your shadowy head be the blood of this man; we wash our hands of it"-they should more honestly take the retribution into their own hands, and each man for himself be the executioner of its stern law. You cannot judge of the fierce wrongs which heat their strong passions to the fever-thirst for blood and vengeance. It is a battle for life-forever-on these desolate wilds, of man to man, eye to eye, and foot to foot. Yet they have a code-though a relentless and martial one it be written in the constitution of their natures, and the circumstances of their position.

"Trust me each state must have its policies

Kingdoms have edicts-cities have their charters

And even the wild outlaw, in his forest walks,

Keeps yet some touch of civil discipline.'

By this code they are most sacredly bound. This common law of conscience