Turning to the plaintiff, whose name was Teuhe, Ori asked for what purpose they were assembled. The poor man replied:
"O magistrate, in my garden there grew a bread-fruit-tree. Its shelter was thrown over my cottage. Its fruit supported my children. Yesterday some one came and cut it down. They tell me the Queen sent him to do so. What I desire to ask is, whether the law was made only for kings, or for poor men too?"
The magistrate, turning to the Queen, asked if she had ordered this. She answered, "Yes." He then asked if she did not know that they had laws. She said, "Yes"; but she was not aware that they applied to her. The magistrate asked if in those laws—a copy of which he held in his hand—there were any exceptions in favor of chiefs, or kings, or queens. She answered, "No," and dispatched one of her attendants to her house, who soon returned with a bag of money, which she threw down before the poor man, as a recompense for his loss.
"Stop," said the Justice; "we have not done yet." The Queen began to weep. "Do you think it right that you should have cut down the tree without asking the owner's permission?" continued the magistrate. "It was not right," said the Queen. Then turning to the poor man, he asked, "What remuneration do you require?" Teuhe answered, "If the Queen is convinced that it was not right to take a little man's tree without his permission, I am sure she will not do so again. I am satisfied; I require no other recompense." His disinterestedness was applauded, the assembly dispersed, and afterward, I think, the Queen sent him privately a present equal to the value of his tree.
[CAPTAIN EDWARDS'S BIG WHALE.]
BY EESUNG EYLISS.
"Uncle Horace, I have just been down to the foot of Wall Street to see the whale."
"I am very glad you have done so, Bennie. What did you think of it, and what did it look like?"
"When I went in, the great creature was lying on a board floor under a large canvas tent, and about twenty persons were examining it. Oh, it was so fat! Great gashes had been made in its sides, and through them you could see what they called the 'blubber.' I saw Captain Edwards there too. He was talking to another gentleman, and telling him all about how he caught the whale."