* * * * *

BY GEORGE!

(_Concluded_.)

LAKE GEORGE, N. Y., Sept. 12.

DEAR PUNCHINELLO: "SLUKER," continued the long-haired man in an
absent-minded manner, "was a _corker_! there is no mistake about that.

Like the Ghost at BOOTH'S, he was a terror to the peaceful Hamlet. He
was always getting up shindys without the slightest provocation, and was
evidently possessed of the unpleasant ambition, as well as ability, to
whale the entire township in detachments of one.

Things got to be so bad after a while that the bark was rubbed off every
tree in town on account of the people incontinently shinning up them
whenever SLUKER came in sight.

It was no unusual thing to see business entirely suspended for hours,
while SLUKER marched up and down the main street, whistling, with his
hands in his pockets, and every soul in the place, from the minister
down, roosting as high as they could get, six on a branch, sometimes.

Matters went on in this way until one day a little incident occurred
that somewhat discouraged this gentle youth. He had just returned from a
discussion with a butcher, (from the effects of which the latter now
sleeps in the valley,) when a party of his fellow-townsmen entered the