any other earthly object, the
major's "Dutch gun". Doubtless, ere this, the _zundnadel_ has slain
many a "grisly b'ar" among the wild ravines of the Rocky Mountains.

Courteous reader! I was about to write the word "adieu", when "Little
Jack" handed me a letter, bearing the Vera Cruz post-mark. It was
dated, "_La Virgen, November 1, 1849_." It concluded as follows:

"You were a fool for leaving Mexico, and you'll never be half as happy
anywhere else as I am here. You would hardly know the `ranche'--I
mean the fields. I have cleared off the weeds, and expect next year
to take a couple of hundred bales off the ground. I believe I can
raise as good cotton here as in Louisiana; besides, I have a little
corner for vanilla. It would do your heart good to see the
improvements; and little Luz, too, takes such an interest in all I do.
Haller, I'm the happiest man in creation.

"I dined yesterday with our old friend Cenobio; and you should have
seen him when I told him the man he had in his company. I thought he
would have split his sides. He's a perfect old trump this Cenobio,
notwithstanding his smuggling propensities.

"By the way, you have heard, I suppose, that our `other old friend',
the padre, has been shot. He took part with Paredes against the
Government. They caught him at Queretaro, and shot him with a dozen
or so of his `beauties' in less than a squirrel's jump.

"And now, my dear Haller, a last word. We all want you to come back.
The house at Jalapa is ready for you, and Dona Joaquina says it is
yours, and she wants you to come back.

"Don Cosme, too--with whom it appears Lupe was the favourite--he wants
you to come back. Old Cenobio, who is still puzzled about how you got
the knife to cut through the adobes, he wants you to come back. Luz
is fretting after Lupe, and she wants you to come back. And, last of
all, _I_ want you to come back. So `stand not on the order' of your
coming, but come at once.

"Yours for ever,--

"Edward Clayley."

Reader, do _you_ want me to come back?

THE END.

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