The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-09

4 O'Clock, I felt my vexation rapidly
on the taaw, assisted, doubtless, by
the beaming smiles of Mrs. Trawlers.
Tho smiles emboldened me.
''Mrs. Trawlers,'' said, with, I am
afraid, slight dash of hopeless scorn
In my accents; @Mrs. Trawlers, have
you good glass of wine in the
house?"
'eWell, sir" she answered, not bit
put out, eve have some port, and it
ought to be good, for q deal it cost.
my good madam, bring me bot
tie immediately"
1t was brought and decanted with
the hand of a mistress. I tasted it;
finished the glass. L tasted and
finished another. I tasted and
finished third. 1 set it down and
looked ut the landlady, who put in
the stopper and looked at me. TO the
slight interrogative raising of my
eyebrows smile of intelligence was
the response.
s'This is - Mrs. Trawlers?' I
asked.
eyes, sir, it is; and it's vintage of
rs, sir
decline stating how long that bot
tie lasted. The cloth being drawn, I
settled myself comfortably in my
easy chair, and pointing to the empty
decanter, addressed Jim in these
words:
''Jim, another of the same
''Aye, sure, this IS wine," solilo-
| quized Jim, decanting it with ten
der and loving hand, and nodding
mysteriously. II reckon ee dunna git
sich stuff as that Lunnon ways for
nought"
"Try glass, jim
| The rascal drained a mighty
bumper, winked his eyes, nodded
again, and left me to my reflections.
Alas! for the feeting nature of all
mundane things, there are dregs even
to bottle of port Of the vintage of
rs! and those dregs I speedily be-
came aware of. I don't smoke; most
men at that juncture would have
lighted cigar. Shall 1 order an
other? No. It is a glorious spring
evening; feel the sharp sea-breeze
through the ivied window; I'll take
walk and see Shingletown.
There was something to be got out
of Shingletown after all: there was
vintage of rs; there was incident and
excitement; smuggling in the nine
teenth century; perhaps every man in
the place was smuggler? AS I strobe
over the cliffs, on which the sea- breeze
blew strong and fresh, sort of feel
ing came over me-half Will Watch,
half Dick Hatteraick. Countless
stories flashed through my mind of
deadly boat-fghts by dark midnight:
of runnels of brandy mysteriously
left at trustworthy thresholds;- of
caves full of rum puncheons and
powder barrels, with smugglers sit
ting pistol in hand, ready to blow the
place to shlvers at q moments notice
And, as if in consonance with my
thoughts, at every step the scene
grew wilder and wilder. Black
boulders and masses of rock, round
which the path wound with increased
difficulty, shot up perpendicular,
overhanging. Past the sheltered
point of the bay, too, the wind came
in with loud, sonorous murmur; and
the waves, dashing about their white
names, ratified in almost to my feet
through the shiny seaweed and tangle.
Lost in thought, I wandered on
and on, without taking any note of
how the time was speeding. At
length, coming to where pretty wide
fissure divided the path, it struck me,
from the gloor that it must be get
ting late, and ling out my watch
was astonished to find it already eight
O'Clock, and that L had come some
miles from town. That was not the
worst, however. On turning my face
homeward, the first thing saw was a
heavy bank of black cloud covering
the whole easterly horizon. The
wind, after a sort of suppressed sigh,
fell in a moment A strange whis-
pering stiffness succeeded; the sea
grew darker and darker; and scarcely
had l made a dozen steps to return
when the whole sky below the cloud
was lighted up, thick large drops fell
pattering on the rocks, and peal of
thunder truly deafening hurtled over
where / stood. Other three minutes
and had been drenched. Looking
hurriedly round, my eye caught a
small aperture in the rocks beyond
the chasm already mentioned. To
leap this last was the work of a mo-
ment; the next had crept into shell
ter.
| I am poip11ta in ~ pot;Do Jo1r, +boco