"Well, yes, Sir; I could put on a spiteful cat. If a fish will touch anything, he will touch spiteful cat." Then with admirable skill the mariner selected a bait, and in a twinkling had the hook refurnished. "I shall be glad to be successful," said JACKY, "as I notice that my cherished companion, GEORGIE, has obtained the healing weed, and is rapidly returning from the Castle's moat. He will be pleased to find that while he has been in pain I have been enjoying a delightful sport, with no little reward attached to it. If I were sufficiently fortunate to capture a salmon, no doubt I would find a ready market for it in London, and thus acquire a sum of money sufficient to meet all my present necessities, and even to pay back a portion of the sums that have, during a period extending over years, been so kindly advanced to me." Unwilling to waste my time, and finding the occupation of watching JACKY'S fruitless efforts to rob the mighty deep of its piscatorial inhabitants somewhat tedious, I had jotted down these few notes. It was at this moment that JACKY, who had been ineffectually attempting to charge his hook, suddenly gave me the bait to hold. I had thus at length an opportunity of making the close acquaintance of "spiteful cat." The immediate result of the introduction was the abrupt and painful termination of my literary labours. * * * * * "MINE AGAIN."--The _Liverpool Courier_ tells a curious story of a female miner in "one of the chief Welsh gold mines." She is, we are informed, "a girl fair to look upon, a colonial, bright, common-sensible, wayward, musical, a linguist, altogether talented, and something of a new woman, _yet not_. She is linguist enough to attempt the Welsh language, perhaps that she may thereby mine the more." Admirable descriptive diction this! The lady gold-seeker must be not only a miner, but a Minerva, and if only she succeeds in discovering a few nuggets she will be able (as a wag might suggest) to purchase a _pallas_ to live in. * * * * * CABBY; OR, REMINISCENCES OF THE RANK AND THE ROAD. (_By "Hansom Jack."_) No. 1.--MY MATES AND MY FARES. [Illustration] "_Me and my Fares!_" There's a takingish title for one o' them books as they call "Rummynicences!" Don't you imagine "Romance on the Rank" must mean dry-as-dust yarns about Strikes, Fares and Licences. "TREACLE," "LONG BENJY," and "PINEAPPLE BOB," "OLD CURLY," "THE COUNTRYMAN," "GINGER," and "CHICKING," Not naming myself, if it comes to good stories, could give Sherlock 'OLMES arf a length _and_ a licking.