and this gave him leisure to do the honours. He pointed out the
castellated edifice on Blackwell's as the new penitentiary, and the
hamlet of villas, on the other shore, as Ravenswood, though there is
neither wood nor ravens to authorize the name. But the "Sunswick,"
which satisfied the Delafields and Gibbses of the olden, time, and
which distinguished their lofty halls and broad lawns, was not
elegant enough for the cockney tastes of these latter days, so
"wood" must be made to usurp the place of cherries and apples, and
"ravens" that of gulls, in order to satisfy its cravings. But all
this was lost on Spike. He remembered the shore as it had been
twenty years before, and he saw what it was now, but little did he
care for the change. On the whole, he rather preferred the Grecian
Temples, over which the ravens would have been compelled to fly, had
there been any ravens in that neighbourhood, to the old-fashioned
and highly respectable residence that once alone occupied the spot.
The point he did understand, however, and on the merits of which he
had something to say, was a little farther ahead. That, too, had
been re-christened--the Hallet's Cove of the mariner being converted
into Astoria--not that bloody-minded place at the mouth of the
Oregon, which has come so near bringing us to blows with our
"ancestors in England," as the worthy denizens of that quarter
choose to consider themselves still, if one can judge by their
language. This Astoria was a very different place, and is one of the
many suburban villages that are shooting up, like mushrooms in a
night, around the great Commercial Emporium. This spot Spike
understood perfectly, and it was not likely that he should pass it
without communicating a portion of his knowledge to Rose.

"There, Miss Rose," he said, with a didactic sort of air, pointing
with his short, thick finger at the little bay which was just