The Polynesian., 1840-12-19

! pudent fellow; but dont nina hlt1-throw
down your load and take a chair; and, as
this speech was concluded the impertutba-
bic intruder sat down in the only spare seat
there was in the office, crossed his legs, and
began iumbling in Il long, deep pocket for
piece of tobacco.
For two minutes there vas silence, not in
heaven. but from the queer name given to at
least one of It's inhabitants, in Il place of a
different description OF the pressmen and
compositors it may be truly said that struck
with amazemcnt at the fellows atirontery,
" the boldcst held his breath for time;''
while the devil skuIkcd behind an old stair
case, that he might be cut of harms way in
the row which he knew was to come.
Like most proud and irritable men, Rus
sell was for moment thrown oil his guard
| by such an unexpected attack upon the
sanctity Of his roof, and the dignity he had
always maintained in the eyes OF his people.
He sprang to his feet, but for a brief space
stood staring at the wrc-wor!lcr with eyes
that, if they had been basilisks, would GER
tanly have " strucI, him dead" One, two,
three bounds, and Ben had the tall man by
the throat, and would have dashed his brains
out upon the floor; bu, Jonathan saw him
vanced his left, and was not to be taken by
surprise. The dcalh-struggle between FltZ
James and NodcYick Dhu was nothing to it;
to and fro, and round and round they went,
sometimes stumbling over those miscclane-
Gus ornaments which arc to be found on
printng-oilicc floor, and occasionally over
setting u galley OF matter, or kicking their
heels through a standing form. The work
men would have inercrcd, but their masters
blood was up, and with the chivalric spirit
of that profession to which his leisure hours
were devoted, he wanted no odds against a
single opponent
The combatants were well matched: but
Ben had perfect knowledge Of the ground,
which gave him the advantage; so that at-
ter upsctting the countryman over sundry
type-hoxcs and paper-heaps, with the exact
localities Of which he was familiar, he sue
ceedcd in pushing him through the door,
with his back against stout wooden railing,
which protected the landing place from those
flights of stairs up which Jonathan had wound
so recently, unconscious of the prospect be-
fore him of a much more rapid descent. 10
pitch each other over the banuisters was
now the Coup-de-moin to be achieved. Ben
had cot the fellows spine twisted, and his
head and shoulders ovcrhanging the stair
case; but Jonathan had hold of his collar
with both hal d.; and, besides had his long
LEGS twisted round the small of his back.
They had wrcstlcd in this way for five min
utcs, and the wrc-wolkers strength was be-
ginning to fail from the twisting of his back
bone over the rail, when just as his legs be-
gan to fail, and his grasp to relax, and as
Ben was preparing for one mighty effort, by
which the victory was to be secured, a hor-
ribc c-laugh-some,hing between real
guilaw and ycII-strucI> upon his ear; and
looking through The window in front OF him.
he saw Mungo Mackay at the window of the
Exchange Coffee House opposite, shaking
his sides as though there were a whole vol
cano under his mdrii. In an instant Ben
understood the trick. That Internal El-
lo", Alnchoy! BY heore"s! fH co"hide him
~i!hn an inch Of his Hf'' he exclaimed as
he drew Jonathan in from the dangerous po-
stion where he hung and stood him on his
feet. But Russell was too good fellow to
bear malice long; and moreover he was so
rcloiccd that he had not committed homicide
in addition to making himself ridiculous, that
after few hours his resentment passed of,
and to the day of his death he was never
tired of telling the story 10 be continued.