Week after week passed away. I saw Bohun from time to time, but he could not procure me a desirable situation. In the mean time the expenses for my board seemed to me a serious matter. My pride took the alarm, and I could not rest easy under the idea that I was all the while living like a price at the expense of Mr. Thomas. When I mentioned this to Bohun, he told me to keep quiet and give myself no anxiety; that my expenses, which I regarded as so heavy, were in reality trifling, and Mr. Thomas would never miss the amount. A few days after this conversation, Bohun called at my lodgings, and seemed quite excited. "Hawser," said he, "I have pleasant news to communicate. I have been so fortunate as to secure you an excellent situation on a plantation in the north part of the island. Mr. Church, the attorney for the Pearl estates, was in town yesterday, and on my recommendation has consented to take you to fill a vacancy, in preference to several young men who are applicants for the place." "I should much prefer a situation as clerk on a wharf or in a counting room," said I. "O," replied Bohun, "this chance with Mr. Church is far better than a simple clerkship with a trader; the duties are not so arduous, and it will give you a better opportunity to rise in the world; besides, Mr. Church is an excellent man, a whole-souled Irishman, who has been in the army, and has great influence in the island. He will send a mule and a guide over the mountains tomorrow; so you must prepare for the journey on the following day." "Very well," said I, hardly knowing whether to be pleased or dissatisfied with this arrangement, which I decided, however, to accept, with a mental determination, if I found my situation objectionable, to abandon it at once, and if I could do no better, try my fortunes again on the ocean. In the mean time, I should see a new and perhaps interesting phase in life. "The Upper Pearl estate, where you will reside," continued Bohun, "is one of the healthiest estates on the island. On some of the sugar plantations, 'fever and ague' prevails at certain seasons of the year, but is unknown on the Pearl estates. Your situation will be a pleasant one in every respect." I shuddered at the idea of fever and ague, with the name of which disease the most pleasant associations were not connected, and congratulated myself on the fact that the Pearl estates were exempted from this and almost every other evil in the shape of sickness. The next day I completed my preparations for a journey across the mountains to the opposite side of the island. Agreeably to a suggestion from Bohun, I procured from my accommodating landlady her bill for my board and lodging; to this she added another item for washing, swelling the amount to the very respectable sum of sixty-six dollars.