met."
I intimated that I did not recollect him. "Oh!" said he, "we came over
in the _Sarnia_ together." Well, the story was not improbable. Of the
1,000 on board the _Sarnia_ I could not be expected to remember all. "My
name is G.," mentioning a well-known banker in London, and then he began
to tell me of his travels, at what hotel he was staying, and finally
added that he had been presented with a couple of Longfellow's _Poems_,
handsomely bound, as a prize, and that he would be glad if I would accept
one. Well, as my copy of Longfellow was rather the worse for wear, I
told him I would accept it with pleasure. But I must come with him for
it. I did so, and while doing so learned from him that the prize had
been given in connection with a lottery scheme for raising money to build
a church down South. The idea seemed to me odd, but Brother Jonathan's
ways are not as ours, and I was rather pleased to find that I had thus a
new chance of seeing religious life, and of having something fresh to
write about. I am free to confess, as the great Brougham was wont to
say, I jumped at the offer. In a few minutes we were inside a
respectable-looking house, where a tall gentleman invited us to be
seated, regretting that the copies of Longfellow had not come home from
the binder's, and promising that we should have them by noon. Next he
unfolded what I thought was a plan of the proposed church, but which
proved to be a chart with figures--with prizes, as it seemed to me, to
all the figures. To my horror my friend took up the cards, and asked me
to select them for him. This I did, and he won a thousand dollars,
blessing me as he shook hands with me warmly, and saying that as I had
won half I must have half. Well, as the ticket had certain conditions,
and as I felt that it was rather hard on the church to take all that
money, I continued the game for a few minutes, my young friend being
eager that I should do so, till the truth dawned upon me that I had been
drawn into a swindlers' den, and that I and my friend were dupes, and I
resolved to leave off playing, much to the regret of my friend, who gave
the keeper of the table a cheque for 100 pounds, which he would pay for
me, as I would not, and thus by another effort retrieve my loss. There
was one spot only on the board marked blank, and that, of course, was
his. Burning with indignation I got up to go, my friend following me,
saying how much he regretted that he had le