in his thoughts, commences drawing forth, piece after piece
of the old relics. The old man will not allow this. "There, young man!"
he says, touching him on the elbow, and resuming his labor. At length he
draws forth the dust-tenanted skull, coated on the outer surface with
greasy mould. "There!" he says, with an unrestrained exclamation of joy,
holding up the wasting bone, "this was in its time poor Yorick's skull.
It was such a skull, when Yorick lived! Beneath this filthy remnant of
past greatness (I always think of greatness when I turn to the past),
this empty tenement, once the domain of wisdom, this poor bone, what
thoughts did not come out?" And the old man shakes his head, mutters
inarticulately, and weeps with the simplicity of a child.

"The Star'll have skulls and bones enough to make up for his want of
talent now--I reckon," interposes the property-man. "But!--I say,
mister, this skull couldn't a bin old Yorick's, you know--"

"Yorick's!--why not?" interrupts the old man.

"Because Yorick--Yorick was the King's jester, you see--no nigger; and
no one would think of importing anything but a nigger's skull into
Charleston--"

"Young man!--if this skull had consciousness; if this had a tongue it
would rebuke thee;" the old man retorts hastily, "for my ancestors knew
Yorick, and Yorick kept up an intimate acquaintance with the ancestors
of the very first families in this State, who were not shoemakers and
milliners, as hath been maliciously charged, but good and pious
Huguenots." To the end that he may convince the unbelieving Thespian of
the truth of his assertion, he commences to rub away the black coating
with the sleeve of his coat, and there, to his infinite delight, is
written, across the crown, in letters of red that stand out as bold as
the State's chivalry--"Alas! poor Yorick." Tears of sympathy trickle
down the old man's cheeks, his eyes sparkle with excitement, and with
womanly accents he mutters: "the days of poetry and chivalry are gone.
It is but a space of time since this good man's wit made Kings and
Princes laugh with joy."

This skull, and a coral pin, which he said was presented to his
ancestors by Lord Cornwallis, who they captured, now became his hobby;
and he referred to it in all his conversation, and made them as much his
idol as our politicians do secession. In this instance, he dare not
entrust his newly-discovered jewel to the vulgar hands of Mr. Property,
but pledged his honor--a