The Monikins | Page 5

summer?" he asked, earnestly.
"Within a month."

"Your address--"
"Hotel de l'Ecu."
"You shall hear from me. Adieu."
We parted, he, his lovely wife, and his guides descending to the Rhone,
while I pursued my way to the Hospice of the Grimsel. Within the
month I received a large packet at l'Ecu. It contained a valuable
diamond ring, with a request that I would wear it, as a memorial of
Lady Householder, and a fairly written manuscript. The following short
note explained the wishes of the writer:
"Providence brought us together for more purposes than were at first
apparent. I have long hesitated about publishing the accompanying
narrative, for in England there is a disposition to cavil at extraordinary
facts, but the distance of America from my place of residence will
completely save me from ridicule. The world must have the truth, and I
see no better means than by resorting to your agency. All I ask is, that
you will have the book fairly printed, and that you will send one copy
to my address, Householder Hall, Dorsetshire, Eng., and another to
Captain Noah Poke, Stonington, Conn., in your own country. My Anna
prays for you, and is ever your friend. Do not forget us.
"Yours, most faithfully,"
"HOUSEHOLDER."
I have rigidly complied with this request, and having sent the two
copies according to direction, the rest of the edition is at the disposal of
any one who may feel an inclination to pay for it. In return for the copy
sent to Stonington, I received the following letter:
"ON BOARD THE DERBY AND DOLLY, "STONNIN'TUN, April
1st, 1835.
"AUTHOR OF THE SPY, ESQUIRE:
"Dear Sir:--Your favor is come to hand, and found me in good health,
as I hope these few lines will have the same advantage with you. I have
read the book, and must say there is some truth in it, which, I suppose,
is as much as befalls any book, the Bible, the Almanac, and the State
Laws excepted. I remember Sir John well, and shall gainsay nothing he
testifies to, for the reason that friends should not contradict each other.
I was also acquainted with the four Monikins he speaks of, though I
knew them by different names. Miss Poke says she wonders if it's all
true, which I wunt tell her, seeing that a little unsartainty makes a

woman rational. As to my navigating without geometry, thats a matter
that wasn't worth booking, for it's no curiosity in these parts, bating a
look at the compass once or twice a day, and so I take my leave of you,
with offers to do any commission for you among the Sealing Islands,
for which I sail to- morrow, wind and weather permitting.
"Yours to sarve, NOAH POKE."
"To the Author of THE SPY, Esquire, ---town,------county, York state.
"P. S.--I always told Sir John to steer clear of too much journalizing,
but he did nothing but write, night and day, for a week; and as you
brew, so you must bake. The wind has chopped, and we shall take our
anchor this tide; so no more at present.
"N. B.--Sir John is a little out about my eating the monkey, which I did,
four years before I fell in with him, down on the Spanish Main. It was
not bad food to the taste, but was wonderful narvous to the eye. I r'ally
thought I had got hold of Miss Poke's youngest born."

THE MONIKINS.

CHAPTER I.
THE AUTHOR'S PEDIGREE,--ALSO THAT OF HIS FATHER.
The philosopher who broaches a new theory is bound to furnish, at
least, some elementary proofs of the reasonableness of his positions,
and the historian who ventures to record marvels that have hitherto
been hid from human knowledge, owes it to a decent regard to the
opinions of others, to produce some credible testimony in favor of his
veracity. I am peculiarly placed in regard to these two great essentials
having little more than its plausibility to offer in favor of my
philosophy, and no other witness than myself to establish the important
facts that are now about to be laid before the reading world for the first
time. In this dilemma, I fully feel the weight of responsibility under
which I stand; for there are truths of so little apparent probability as to
appear fictitious, and fictions so like the truth that the ordinary observer
is very apt to affirm that he was an eye-witness to their existence: two
facts that all our historians would do well to bear in mind, since a
knowledge of the circumstances might spare them the mortification of

having testimony that cost a deal of trouble, discredited in the one case,
and save a vast deal of painful and unnecessary labor, in the other.
Thrown upon