be lord and master unceremoniously and incontinently out of doors, and then, like a good child, coming home again, and getting her friends to fight out the battle for her. As we before said, it was in the younger days of our younger state, that the adventure, or series of adventures, occurred which we are about to relate. In consequence of a certain roving disposition, "cupidus," as Cicero hath it, nervarum rerum,' we found ourselves located and domiciled in the family of one Joe H, a regular back-woodsman, a capital hunter, and a decided character, with nothing in particular to do, except to amuse ourselves as best we might. A wife, provide his clothing-or, if neces- Within four miles of Joe's cabin, through a thicket so dense that even in that country of tangled forest it was known as the "big thicket," ran the San Jacinto, a stream where water, pure and pellucid, traverses the finest timber in the world, and, according to Joe's account, were patronized by an extensive variety of very superior fish. Now the fish part of the business was put in as a magnet to attract me, for Joe himself was the only man in the settlement who had ventured to explore the tangled maze. Had Joe been a Gothamite,-"to the manor born"-his genius and inclination" would have led him to Wall-street, for he was "great" upon speculation, usually spending one third of his time in expeditions "up country" in search of a silver mine; another third, hunting bee trees, and taking possession; and the greater part of the remainder in studying how to get a living without work. But, alas, Joe had never heard of "bulls" without horns, nor ever dreamed of meeting a "bear" unless there was mischief "bruin." The labor of a few days sufficed to make his somewhat scanty crop; a few more, gathered his stock of cattle, and left him the rest of the year to follow the bent of his inclination, which, without being what may be technically described as "crooked," nevertheless had as many twists and ramifications as the horn of a veteran of the flock and fold. The last silver mine speculation had, as usual, proved unfortunate. He had spent six months in vainly searching the banks of the Upper "Trinity," for the much coveted treasure, barely escaped starvation and scalping by the Indians, returned home not particularly burthened with clothing, with the little that remained of a decidedly multifarious and forlorn character, for his tailoring had been of the rudest, somewhat approaching the Adam and Eve style of the art. His tobacco, coffee, and ammunition, the three sine qua nons, were nearly expended, and so he set his brain to work to find, or invent, some plan for a further supply. These, to a frontier man, are, strictly speaking, the indispensables-for a small patch of cotton, and an industrious Joe's brain had generated a prodigious idea, worthy, at least, of the immortal Jack Tibbets, and the sum of it was, to go to Houston and pick up a score or so of disbanded volunteers that were hanging around the town, with whom to enter into an extensive lumber operation, in the stave and shingle line. According to his calculation, a fortune was to be realized in a very short time; but having had some experience of his vagaries, we determined to reason the matter with him, and try an experiment ere we plunged blindly into a serious matter. Reason he would not hear; he had thought the matter over to his satisfaction; but the experiment he finally agreed to try and thus the compromise was ultimately settled. We were first to spend a month in the "timber,"-Joe as master-workman and director in general-ourselves as occasional assistant in the shingling business, and fisherman in ordinary, attached to the commissariat department. This plan was perfectly satisfactory to us, for one month we knew was sufficient to give a quietus to any of Joe's plans which included personal exertions upon his own part; and, in truth, we had heard so much of the fish that a desire had seized us to capture and taste of them. ་ Our first excursion, or rather incursion, was made simply and solely as a voyage of discovery. Our only sure guide to the spot was the fact that some two miles down the prarie ran, or perhaps more often stood, a bayou, which crossed it on its way to the river, and three miles above us was a marais," or slough, which, according to our friend Joe's account, changed into a "branch ;" then running through a cypress brake or two, finally assumed the form of a palmetto swamp, and in that guise joined the river. Now these two land, or rather water marks, after sundry and divers contortions and gyrations, ultimately converged and nearly met. So that all we had to do was to keep the bayou upon the right hand and the swamp on the left-a modern version of Scylla and Charybdis-and with the aid of patience, a huge hack knife, Joe's wood crop, and extreme good luck, we might, barring accidents and the overclouding of the sun, finally hope to attain the point proposed. There was, to be sure, a kind of path, rather a mythological affair, supposed to have been originally marked out by some old party of surveyors, partly kept open by cattle, where the thicket was not very dense, and, occasionally, in other parts by such of the "varmint" as could crawl through the cane and under the briars, so that now and then a remnant was visible; but as both ends were totally blotted out of existence, and only a few marks where it had been remained, it was, if anything, rather worse than useless. The first part of our journey was effected on horseback; but after proceeding about half a mile into the "timber," this mode of progression was suddenly brought to a period by the dense undergrowth, and we were reduced to a very natural and primitive style of locomotion. The spot had been aptly named the "big thicket." Immense bamboo briars, like vegetable laocoons, twined and intertwined, crossed and recrossed from tree to tree and shrub to shrub, forming a natural trelliswork for the thousand and one wild and beautiful vines that abounded there. The passion vine, with its singular flower and luscious fruit; the cypress vine, with its dazzling gem-like blossoms, whose form is said to have suggested the pentagonal star of the Texan flag; the morning-glory, trebling in size and beauty the stunted, dwarfish thing found in our northern gardens, and an innumerable host of others, of minor importance clung to them. Above our heads, the gigantic, wax-like blossoms of the magnificent magnolia grandiflora shed a perfume rivalling the lotus, while, from the branches of every tree, the trumpet creeper, the parasite, par excellence, of the vegetable kingdom, waved her crimson cuniform flowers. Birds of showy plumage and joyous voices-the dandy paroquet-the log-cock, with his gaudy head dress--the dusky mockingbird, whose imitative but inimitable song more than compensates for his Quaker attire-were flitting to and fro, hopping from twig to twig, so carelessly and unconcerned that it was very evident they were seldom troubled with a visit of the fell destroyer, man. We had now to contend for every step we gained; knife and hatchet were in constant requisition, and for one hour we passed on in Indian file as best we might. Joe now announced the discovery of a tree, which he recognized as one that grew near the neglected trail, and toward it we made our way. On reaching it we found it truly near something that might have been a trail or might have been a rabbit-path, and which led us in a few moments into a cane brake, where the rank cane grew in wild luxuriance, thick, according to Joe, as the "hars on a dog.' Joe said, "he allowed this wouldn't pay," for we had certainly stumbled into the slough, which formed our southern boundary; and so off we started in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, while following our trail, the sun became obscured; and we had been so busy cutting our way, and keeping in the path, that we had neglected to take an observation of any of the prominent trees ahead of us. The back-woodsman's compass, the black and rough bark upon the north side of trees, failed, for so thoroughly defended were they by the deep thicket, that the bitter northers seemed to have produced no effect. Under these circumstances it was, perhaps, not in the least surprising that, after floundering about a while in the bush, we found ourselves in an immense and gloomy cypress brake. Reader, did you ever see a cypress brake? if not, you have yet one nameless horror to experience-your first feelings upon beholding one. The brake is always upon low ground, or rather in a swale, which, during the rainy season, is filled with water; but the one into which we had stumbled was perfectly dry, excepting here and there a puddle, containing rather more mud than water, and densely populated with the most vile of reptiles, the moccasin snake, who had congregated there in great numbers. scrambled, intending to make our way between the two obstacles, but we had not proceeded far when the sun made his appearance, shining, to my astonishment, not in our faces, but upon our backs. Joe, however, nothing daunted, merely muttered something about having taken the "back track," and then wheeling about, with the sun for his pilot, guided us directly to the river. A more beautiful stream never gladdened our eyes; running over a bed of pebble and rock, between shelving banks of glistening sand, white as the unsullied snow flake, it resembled rather one of our northern streams than anything of the kind we had before seen in the south. In a deep pool immediately beneath us however, a half-grown alligator floating lazily upon the surface, and the occasional flash of the fins and tail of that shark of the fresh water, the gar, assured us of the southern locality. The ground was perfectly bare, fibrous, and free from any thing like grass or vegetation, save an occasional cluster of rank and noxious vines, of a sickening, deadly green. From this drear abode arose the trunk of many a huge cypress, shooting up its straight and living shaft, far, far above our heads, seeming almost to pierce the clouds, and, at a great height, outstretching its spectral arms clad and draped with the fatal moss, which lives, and feeds, and Strong was the temptation to cast a line thrives only upon the malaria and vapors into the blue depths below, but alas the of the most deadly kind. No settler means and appliances were wanting. The builds his cabin near the spot where its day was Sunday, and Joe, although far from sombre curtain is seen waving to and fro, a bigot, was a very aristocrat in his feelbut shuns it as a sure token of the pres-ings, and had put a decided veto upon taence of pestilence and death. king with us any tackle for fishing. He was not, he said, sot up about Sunday; but huntin' and fishin' on that day was clear nigger, and went agin him," so we dropped the subject. Around the foot of every tree a number of those singular conical-shaped shoots, termed needles, are standing, resembling so many grave stones; and slowly crawling among them, or lying stupid and sullen, After strolling down the stream, and sewith its mouth wide agape, is ever found lecting an eligible spot for our camp, we the filthy moccasin. No token gives he returned, and although we lost our way of his presence, like the tocsin of the chiv-again-which by the by we never after failalrous rattlesnake, but should you ap- ed of doing, either in going in or coming proach too near you would soon feel his out of the bush-yet, at length arriving deadly fang, more fatal even than those of safely at the spot where our horses were tied the latter. He is the most hateful of his out, mounted them and soon reached kind, a truculent coward, and never, save home. in one solitary instance have we known him to offer an attack, or even resist one in any other manner than by slinking hissingly away. To our surpise, Joe seemed quite satisfied that he had fallen in with the swamp. His reasons however, were good-for said he, "this is either a part of the slough, and if so, must be near the river, or it joins the bayou, and if this be the case, we cannot be far from it either, for the slough and the bayou do not approach each other until very near it." Out of the brake we During the evening we thought of nothing but the fish; our dreams that night were full of them, and we awoke next morning with a firm and fixed determination that come what might that day would we cast our line into the crystal waters of the San Jacinto. Joe, for a wonder, had something to do, and after advising us to abandon the idea of visiting the river alone, finally submitted, saying that there was nothing like learning after all, and gave us the best advice and direction in his power. But no; this might not be, we had kept the banks of the bayou on our right, and must be going down stream. However, for our satisfaction, we determined to mark the tree with a "blaze"-did so, and went In a short time our vegetable "old man of the sea" again hove in sight, and upon examination, there was the "blaze" we had so lately cut. on. At an early hour of a bright morning | fifth tree, all alike, and for the first time did we set forth upon our mad-cap expedi- the many tales we had heard of lost travtion, and after some three or four hours ellers moving round and round in a circle, of vigorous exertion, found ourselves hea- from which there seemed no escape, flashed ven knows where. The thicket seemed to upon our mind. grow more dense at every step, until at last we reached something that resembled a new made path. The thick tall cane had been trampled and crushed so that for a time we made famous headway. As we were pressing onward, a rattling of cane caught our ears, and peering into the thicket,, we saw something that we were convinced at a glance must be either a clergyman, a chimney sweep, or a bear, and as there was not the slightest probability of either of the former gentry being in such a latitude, we conjectured, and rightly, that it must be no less a personage than his eminence Sir Bruin himself. At the identical moment when we made the discovery, our friend also had ascertained our proximity, and not knowing but that we might be fair game for him, wheeled in his track, and returned. Totally unarmed save with a large hack knife, we stepped aside to a huge tree, and placing our back against it, awaited his coming. It was but a moment, the cane parted, and there he stood, but stood not long. We have before in our lives made some noise, yet it was surely but as silence when compared to the yell with which we greeted him-which of us was the more alarmed we know not, but the victory was with us. Bruin with a snort resembling that of a plethoric specimen of the porcine genus, in a state of excessive alarm abandoned the field. Our joy at his departure was much increased by the discovery that the tree where we stood was upon the bank of the bayou, which we now determined to keep in sight until the end and aim of our journey was attained. In a few minutes we fell in with a path newly cut in the dense cane, and we passed onward with renewed vigor. It was perfectly inexplicable. Had we gone mad? Was this some illusion of the senses? We thought, and with a shudder of a certain old, withered, parchment-faced African negress, a privileged character in Joe's settlement, whose hitherto undisputed claims to the possession of magic power we had seen fit to call into question, and ridicule, only the previous evening, to the manifest alarm of the listeners. A moment's reflection, however, banished all this, and laughing at our singular situation, we determined coute qui coute, to escape from this modern labyrinth. Down the precipitate banks of the bayou we dashed, and made our way now upon one side of the nearly dried up stream, now upon the other, and now in the shallow water. Once more, and for the last time, our tree was seen, we passed it, and the mystery was solved. It appears we had stumbled upon a peninsula formed by the bayou's doubling upon itself. The entrance was but a step from bank to bank, and when once in, our chance of finding our way out by the same isthmus was but small. By the time we reached the river, the sun was declining, and the threatening clouds warned us to make the best of our way homeward. Without any very serious mishap we arrived in safety, perfectly satisfied with our exploit, and willing in future to await Joe's motions. Presently we came to a tree which bore At last behold us fairly located upon the so striking a resemblance to the one which banks of the river, where Joe had selected stood upon the scene of the bear's stam- a fine hard shingle beach upon which to pede, that we paused to look at it, but re- pitch our camp. The said camp was an membering that it was no phenomenon to extemporaneous affair, a kind of al fresco find two similar trees in the forest, we re-home, formed by setting up a few crotchets sumed our course. to sustain a rude roof of undressed shingles, there known as boards, supported upon diminutive rafters of cane. After the lapse of a short interval, we passed a third, then a fourth, and finally a This done, a cypress suitable for a canoe, or "dug out," was selected, and in two days shaped, hollowed out, and launched. Fairly embarked now in the business, I found but little difficulty in obtaining a supply of the green trout, and divers other kinds of river fish; but the huge "cats," where were they? We fished at early morn and dewy eve, before the light had faded out from the stars of morning, and after dame nature had donned her nocturnal mantle-all was vain. Joe counselled patience, and remarked that the larger species never run but during a rise or fall in the river, and must then be fished for at night. One morning heavy clouds in the north, and the sound of distant thunder, informed us that a storm was in progress near the head waters of our stream. Our rude tackle was looked after, and bait prepared in anticipation of the promised fish, which the perturbed waters of the river were to incite to motion. Night came, and we left for a spot which we were sure the "cats" must frequent; a deep dark hole, immediately above a sedgy flat. Our patience and perseverance at length met with their reward. We felt something very carefully examining the bait, and at last tired of waiting for the bite, struck with force. cold norther was blowing fiercely, and the The keen eyes of Joe, who had been peering up and down the river, however, discovered something on the opposite side that bore a strong resemblance to the missing pole, and when the sun had fairly risen we found that there it surely was, and moreover its bowing to the water's edge, and subsequent straightening up, gave proof that a fish was fast to the line. The northern blast blew shrill and cold: the ordinarily gentle current of the river was now a mad torrent, lashing the banks in fury, and foaming over the rocks and trees, that obstructed its increased volume. Joe and ourselves looked despairingly at each other and shook our heads in silence and in sorrow. Yet there was the pole waving to and fro at times when the fish would repeat his efforts to escape; it was worse than the cup of Tantalus, and bearing it as long as we could, we prepared for a plunge in the maddened stream. One plunge satisfied us; we were thrown back upon the shore, We had him, a huge fellow too; back-cold and dispirited. wards and forwards he dashed, up and down, in and out; no fancy tackle had we, but plain and trustworthy-at least so we fondly imagined. At last we had trailed the gentleman upon the sedge, and were upon the eve of wading in and securing him, when a splash in the water which threw it in every direction, announced that something new had turned up, and away went we, hook and line, into the black hole below. At this moment our tackle parted; the robber, whether alligator or gar we know not, disappeared with our scarce captured prey, and we crawled out upon the bank in a blessed humor. Our fishing was finished for the evening; but regaining the tackle as best we might, casting the line again into the pool, and fixing the pole firmly in the knot-hole of a fallen tree, we abandoned it to fish upon its own hook. When we arose in the morning, a chill During the entire day there stood and swung to and fro the wretched pole, now upright as an orderly sergeant, now bending down, and fairly kissing the waters at its feet. The sight we bore until flesh and blood could no more endure. The sun had sunk to rest; the twilight was fading away, and the stars were beginning to peep out from their sheltering places enquiringly, as if to know why the night came not on, when we, stung to the soul, determined at any hazard to dare the venture. Wringing Joe's hand, who shook his head very dubiously, up the stream bent we our course, until we reached a point some distance above, from which the current passing dashed with violence against the bank, shot directly over to the very spot where waved and wagged our wretched rod, cribbed by the waters, and cabined and confined among the logs. We plunged in; and swift as arrow from |