but this act of the city magistrate proved that the proper remedy for starvation is knocking off the head and that nobody is better able to do it than those who possess a good corporation of their own


i do not know whether or not a sort of judg ment followed richard for thus settling a starving population but it is well known to be a fact that richard was starved in prison


whether he was first tormented with water gruel or tempted to eat mice and black beetles or locked up in the refractory cell for grumbling or put in the deadhouse for trying to get away i am not cer tain but it appears he was starvedas every king ought to be who makes starving a science according to the philosophy of the poor law commissioners


c to be continued j


the preacher parrot on the trials of truth chapter i tnutn says john milton is rarely born but ljlco p bastard to the shame of him wht begets it


lot not tho veracious reader start at this dreamy faith for tho oamo author crocs on to declare that timo at lemrth loci timatises tho basoborn and removes the odium from its father


thus though the living martyr may bo burned to cinders it may so happen that tho greatest veneration shall bo paid to his ashes


now as wo are given to unr ilorstand from gontlemon of tho learned profession mom uors of parliament party politicians and other consumers of tho precious manna though truth bo an inestimable treasure still for that reason it is not to be produced on every light occasion


in tho first place a too great fa miliarity with it begets indifference


to bo always speaking tho truth wliat js it but to wear a courtsuit eyory day to go shopping in hoop stomaehor and diamonds


wo shall never forget tho apothegm of a late lamented attorney whose only son how lip acquirod tlio antipathy yet remains a mystery had an invincible aversion to a ho


josoph said tho father with somo tfihig like tears in his eyes josopii heaven knows how soon i may bo taken from you and therefore i cannot joo frequently check your preposterous extravagance ruth joseph truth is like god a roally


wiso man makes a little of it go a groat way


to our mind nothing can bo finer nothing more profound than this axiom


truth is like gold for how often does a rocklbss iisoof it bring its utterer to beggary lot the fato of pur hero bo taken as an example


qne pound one tho bird is yours sr cage and nil


i iiub spoke mrbrown tho auctioneer declaring a parrot


mo of a dozen that had boon twenty tunes put up without a purchaser to be the property of tho guineabidder


no owner of the bird knew not tle dangerous troasuro mo possessed


the parrot was a vory solomon in feathers and though its possessor failed to appreciate the virtue like trtio wfsdom it was sparing of speech


iis muster mistaking silence for inability disposed or tho bird us a woelthoad though if itlikcdit could fifty times a day liavo called ifsetf


a clovor fellow


however thoro


was this besotting bin in tho bird it never opened its mouth jiut it utterou an awkward truth blurted out a sentenco turned with satlrei reproach or contempt


what it said would at timoa fall with a fatal crash upon tho cogita tion of its hearorb limiting them doubt if beelzebub spoke not through a parrot


unfortunately for its futurp luiet its long sojourn fn tho room of tho auotiouoor hud nablod it to store its memory with tho choicest scraps of the orator which undigested exclamations interro gatories opinions and appeals it would too frequently


utter to tho confusion of its owners


our martyr to truth the parrot became tho


property qf the lady of mr phocion a gentleman who had struggled through many difficulties to become a member of parliament some of his difficulties boing ponsidorably lessened by the attainment of tho dignity t


yes he was a senator to the confusion of his tailor


ho was a man of considerable powers of address being heard at any part of copenhagenfields whencvor he thoro con descended to deliver his sentiments


as his opinions were not fixed ho was in tho happiest condition for im provement


if he had not road a great deal of history ho had attended and spoken at many public dinners


if ho had cared to shino that way ho could have argued in tho atyjo of fox or burke but tho days wore gone for rho torical speeches no tho spirit of tho times demanded brevity and it was much easier to call names


indeed mr phocion successfully oxorcised that great art of lifo


tho art of gracefully concealing our ignorance


ho was a man with a faco of undaunted metal and with nerves of equally strong if not of tho samo material


sublimely unconscious of the ridiculous ho soared above his own deficiencies and was novor so elevated as when


utterly ncomprohpnsiblo


though not quito sufficiently skilled in the graces of literaturo to become a professor


of pootry he novor mado a spoech without tho support of tho muse


no never did ho speak of the poor man but tho oration was decked with that fringe of untarr


nished gold


princes nnd lords may flourish and may fado a breath can make thorn as a breath has made j but a bold poasantry their nations prido when onco destroyed can novor be suppliod


on what ho would call the philosophy of sqpioty lip had his own recondite opinions tor the adoption of which as ho would ofton lament tho world was not yot suffi ciently prepared


that however all the generations of man had been begotten and oduoatcd on a wrong princi pie was his unconquerable faith


with a sovcro disrb gard of


tho ornaments and what are called refinements of lifo ho would have looked on the statue of


tho modi


ccan venus and asked cut bono


or in his own downright nervous english what s the uso of it


he would havo resigned tho elgin marbles to theham mors of mao adam and covorcd a pollingbpoth with the canvasses of raphael


ina word he was a mushroom patriot a thing produced by the corruption of the times


vet lot it not do thought that mr phocion would recant


his faith in the hour of dangor


npt so ho rather courted persecution


often would ho dcularo


his roadiness to lay his head upon tho block and so ontiroly


was his wife influenced by some of his patriotic senti ments that she would hear him with more than roman


serenity


as for tho queens bench prison it was the vestibule to the house of famo and newgate itself might to a public man bocome little less than tho mint


and this was tho exalted creed of mr phocion until a full woek after his admission to tho houso of commons


wo know not whether such a happy change comes upon all young members but certainly mr phocion talked less and at least appeared moro thoughtful


and this serious mood took a deeper shadow from a sprmon which the senator accidentally heard on tho miraclo of tho loavea and tho fishes


mrs phocion romarkpd it and ventured to observe that nowhero could wo get such true conso lation as at church


mr phocion looked palp and so vercly calm as the bust of brutus but replied not


it was an evening on which there was no house and mr und mrs phocion sat with tho only thing that ought ever to divido man and wife namely a book bptwcoii ithcm


the book was xtcttthwt on population


our statesman had no children and mrs phooion who haa merely looked at the titlepage of tho volume contem plated hor husband at his new studies with singular complacency


she would look meekly at her mate and in the pride of her heart fool certain that some public or private good must come of suoh hard reading


mr phocion put aside tho book and leaned his heal on bis hand


tis now two months since youve taken your seat mydoar pray when do you think youll get anything get anything v responded mr phocion what should i get but the proud satisfaction of of i desire madam that you never again alludo to so base a senti mont


get anything


i should despuo myself could i


ibeinduced to take office


well but a salary observed mrs thocion or a something that mr phocion frowned very darkly and his wife was silent


weeks went on and mr phocion gradually lost that serenity of temper which up to his return to parliament had made his house a dovecot


mrs phocion in the simplicity of her soul thought that lawmaking could not be so very respoctabio an employ ment if it kept husbands out until four or five in the morning and then sent them home more like ogres than rational considerate helpmates


to do mr phocion justice no member was more regular in his attendance more sedulous in liu indirect attentions to the minister more watchful of tho public money


still it was but too evident that the dearest wish of his heart was unsatisfied


his merits and his zeal were alike undiscorned


he had it is truo a vote in tho house but for what it brought him ho might as well have had a voice in tho great pyramid


again and again mrs phocion touched upon tho probability of fallen manna and again and again mr phooion with grimroor oksand more passionato voico declared that ho should fool himself a wretch for over could ho bo won to accept anything


no to him place was littlo better than tho pillory


ho would main tain his indepondonco he would roturn to his constituents with whito hands


mrs phocion marvelled at the obstinacy of the man and one morning after a late debate resolved to speak out


what was ho mad enough to refuse a salary for if


it pleased providence doing nothing


was ho


mrs phocion i have seen too many sad examplosof political tergiversation to add to the black number


i have been


the patriot of today and tho pensioner of tomorrow


mrs phocion scorned to smile approval of tho promotion


but no j be it my glory to prove that there is still somo public yirtuo left


and know if i hold oif from golden temptation if i refuse with inexpres sible seorn to sell myself to the minister it is for this proud reason that i have had


no bidders


good god whos that cried the patriot turning palo as though called by the accusing angel


jvb bidders


no bidders replied tho parrot from its auction vocabulary


mr phnoion stared and gasped at tho bird as if a domon spoke in it a malignant spirit that had possessed itself of the heart of the statesmans mystery of tho secret that had lain like an ulcor in his heart tormenting him with scheming da vb and anxious nights


there was something awful appalling supernatural in tho words or rather there was a terrible humanity in them that as the patriot glared upon the bird suggested to him the probability of metempsychosis


had a sir robert walpolo been transmigrated into a parrot


in the name of noaven mrs phocion said her husband taking breath from his astonishment whero did you get that plague


k ho bidders said tho irritating parrot


unhappily therelay uponiho table acopy df the report of ttielat commission


it will give the reader a very favourable idea of mr phooions strength when we state that he seized the tome with one band and flung h at the speaker


the corner of the book caught the right eye of the bird and extinguished its light


we ardently trust the only cao of blindness effected by tho commission


nay im sure my dear it was all in vain mr phocion with all her eloquence failed to convince the member of the many little amiablo ways of her loquacious treasure and well she might for every morning after a long and heavy debate mr phocion jaded drowty bilious was accosted by the parrot with aloud protracted chuckle and no bidders


in a very short timo tho parrot was thrust with cursei on its head from the hearth of the senator


mr phocion we regret to say in due season illustrated the instability of human genius for he accepted a place which he held until his speedy death a fact commemo ratod on a tombstone in that extensive churchyard sierra leone


american notes for general circulation


by charles dickens


chapter iv


from cincinnati to louisville in another western steamboat and from louisville to st louis in another


st louis


leaving cincinnati at eleven oclock in the forenoon we embarked for louisville in the pike steamboat which carrying the mails was a packet of a much better class than that in which we had come from pittsburg


as this passage does not occupy more than twelve or thirteen hours we arranged to go ashore that night not coveting the distinction of sleeping in a stateroom when it was possible to sleep anywhere else


there chanced to be on board of this boat in addition to the usual dreary crowd of passengers one pitchlyn a chief of the choctaw tribe of indians who sent in his card to me and with whom i had the pleasure of a long conversation


he spoke english perfectly well though he had not begun to learn the language he told me until he was a young man grown


he had read many books and scotts poetry appeared to have left a strong im pression on his mind especially the open ing of the lady of the lake and the great battle scene in marmion in which no doubt from the congeniality of the subjects to his own pursuits and tastes he had great interest and delight


he appeared to understand correctly all he had read and whatever fiction had enlisted his sympathy in its belief had done so keenly and earnestly i might almost say fiercely


he was dressed in our ordinary everyday costume which hung about his fine figure loosely and with indifferent grace


on my telling him that i regretted not to see him in his own attire he threw up his right arm for a moment as though he were brandishing some heavy weapon and answered as he let it fall again that his race were losing many things besides their dress and would soon be seen upon the earth no more but he wore it at home he added proudly


he told me that he had been away from his home west of the mississippi seventeen months and was now return ing


he had been chiefly at washing ton on some negotiations pending between his tribe and the government which were not settled yet he said in a melan choly way and he feared never would be for what could a few poor indians do against such wellskilled men of business as the whites


he had no love for washing ton tired of towns and cities very soon and longed for the forest and the prairie


i asked him what he thought of con gress


he answered with a smile that it wanted dignity in an indians eyes


he would very much like he said to see england before he died and spoke with much interest about the great things to be seen there


when i told him of that chamber in the british museum wherein are preserved household memo rials of a race that ceased to be thousands of years ago he was very attentive and it was not hard to see that he had a reference in his mind to the gradual fading away of his own people


this led us to speak of mr catlins gallery which he praised highly observ ing that his own portrait was among the collection and that all the likenesses were elegant


mr cooper he said had painted the red man well and so would i he knew if i would go home with him and hunt buffaloes which he was quite anxious i should do


when i told him that supposing i went i should not be very likely to damage the buffaloes much he took it as a great joke and laughed heartily


he was a remarkably handsome man some years past forty i should judge with long black hair an aquiline nose broad cheek bones a sunburnt complexion and a very bright keen dark and piercing eye


there were but twenty thousand of the choctaws left he said and their number was decreasing every day


a few of his brother chiefs had been obliged to become civilized and to make them selves acquainted with what the whites knew for it was their only chance of ex istence


but they were not many and the rest were as they always had been


he dwelt on this and said several times that unless they tried to assimilate them selves to their conquerors they must be swept away before the strides of civilized society


when we shook hands at parting i i told him he must come to england as he longed to see the land so much that i should hope to see him there one day and that i could promise him he would be well received and kindly treated


he was evidently pleased by this assurance though he rejoined with a goodhumoured smile and an arch shake of his head that the english used to be very fond of the red men when they wanted their help but had not cared much for them since


he took his leavej as stately and com plete a gentleman of natures making as ever i beheld and moved among the people in the boat another kind of being


he sent me a lithographic portrait of him self soon afterwards very like though scarcely handsome enough which i have carefully preserved in memory of our brief acquaintance


there was nothing very interesting in the scenery of this days journey which brought us at midnight to louisville


we slept at the galt house a splendid hotel and were as handsomely lodged as though we had been in paris rather than hundreds of miles beyond the alleghanies


the city presented no objects of suffi cient interest to detain us on our way we resolved to proceed next day by ano ther steamboat the fulton and to join it about noon at a suburb called port land where it would be delayed some time in passing through a canal


the interval after breakfast ee de voted to riding through the town which is regular and cheerful the streets being laid out at right angles and planted with young trees


the buildings are smoky and blackened from the use of bituminous coal but the englishman is well used to that appearance and indisposed to quarrel with it


there did not appear to be much business stirring and some unfinished buildings and improvements seemed to in timate that the city had been over built in the ardour of going ahead and was suffering under the reaction conse quent upon such feverish forcing of its powers


on our way to portland we passed a magistrates office which amused me as looking fat more like a dame school than any police establishment for this awful in stitution was nothing but a little lazy good fornothing front parlour open to the street wherein two or three figures i presume the magistrate and his myrmidons were basking in the sunshine the very effigies of languor and repose


it was a perfect picture of justice retired from business for want of customers her sword and scales sold off napping comfortably with her legs upon the table


here as elsewhere in these parts the road was perfectly alive with pigs of all ages lying about in every direction fast asleep or grunting along in quest of hid den dainties


i had always a sneaking kindness for these odd animals and found a constant source of amusement when all others failed in watching their pro ceedings


as we were riding along this morning i observed a little incident be


tween two youthful pigs which was so very human as to be inexpressibly comi cal and grotesque at the time though i date say in telling it is tame enough


one young gentleman a very delicate porker with several straws sticking about his nose betokening recent investigations in a dunghill was walking deliberately on profoundly thinking when suddenly his brother who was lying in a miry hole unseen by him rose up immediately be fore his startled eyes ghostly with damp mud


never was pigs whole mass of blood so turned


he started back at least three feet gazed for a moment and then shot off as hard as he could go his excessively little tail vibrating with speed and terror like a distracted pendulum


but before he had gone very far he began to reason with himself as to the nature of this frightful appearance and as he reasoned he re laxed his speed by gradual degrees until at last he stopped and faced about


there was his brother with the mud upon him glazing in the sun yet staring out of the very same hole perfectly amazed at his proceedings


he was no sooner as sured of this and he assured himself so carefully that one may almost say he shaded his eyes with his hand to see the better than he came back at a round trot pounced upon him and summarily took off a piece of his tail as a caution to him to be careful what he was about for the future and never to play tricks with his family any more


we found the steam boat in the canal waiting for the slow process of getting through the lock and went on board where we shortly afterwards had a new kind of visitor in the person of a certain kentucky giant whose name is porter and who is of the moderate height of seven feet eight inches in his stockings


there never was a race of people who so completely gave the lie to history as these giants r whom all the chroniclers have so cruelly libelled


instead of roar ing and ravaging about the world con stantly catering for their cannibal larders and perpetually going to market in an un lawful manner they are the meekest people in any mans acquaintance rather inclined to milk and vegetable diet and bearing anything for a quiet life


so de cidedly are amiability and mildness their characteristics that i confess i look upon that south who distinguished him self by the slaughter of these inoffensive persons as a falsehearted brigand who pretending to philanthropic motives was secretly influenced only by the wealth stored up within their castles and the hope of plunder


and i lean the more to this opinion from finding that even the historian of these exploits with all his partiality for his hero is fain to admit that the slaughtered monsters in question were of a very innocent and simple turn extremely guileless and ready of belief lending a credulous ear to the most im probable tales suffering themselves to be easily entrapped into pits and even as in the case of the welsh giant with an excess of the hospitable politeness of a landlord ripping themselves open rather than hint at the possibility of their guests being versed in the vagabond arts of slight ofhand and hocuspocus


the kentucky giant was but another illustration of the truth of this position


he had a weakness in the region of the knees and a trustfulness in his long face which appealed even to five feet nine for encouragement and support


he was only twenty five years old he said and had grown recently for it had been found ne cessary to make an addition to the legs of his inexpressibles


at fifteen he was a short boy and in those days his english father and his irish mother had rather snubbed him as being too small of stature to sustain the credit of the family


he added that his health had not been good though it was better now but short peo ple are not wanting who whisper that he drinks too hard


i understand he drives a hackney coach though how he does it unless he stands on the footboard behind and lies along the roof upon his chest with his chin in the box it would be difficult to compre hend


he brought his gun with him as a curiosity


christened the little rifle and displayed outside a shop window it would make the fortune of any retail business in holborn


when he had shown himself and talked a little while he withdrew with this pocketinstrument and went bobbing down the cabin among men of six feet high and upwards like a lighthouse walking among lampposts within a few minutes afterwards we were out of the canal and in the ohio river again


the arrangements of the boat were like that of the messenger and the passengers were of the same order of people


we fed at the same time on the same kind of viands in the same dull manner and with the same observances


the company ap peared to be oppressed by the same tre mendous concealments and had as little capacity of enjoyment or lightheartedness i never in my life did see such listless heavy dulness as brooded over these meals the very recollection of it weighs me down and makes me for the moment wretched


reading and writing on my knee in our little cabin i really dreaded the coming of the hour that summoned us to table and was glad to escape from it again as if it had been a penance or a punishment


healthy cheerfulness and good spirits forming a part of the banquet i could soak my crusts in the fountain with le sages strolling player and level in their glad enjoyment but sitting down with so many fellow animals to ward off thirst and hunger as a business to empty each creature his yahoos trough as quickly as he can and then slink sullenly away to have these social sacraments stripped off everything but the mere greedy satisfac tion of the natural cravings goes so against the gram with me that i seriously believe the recollection of these funeral feasts will be a waking nightmare to me all my life


there was some relief in this boat too which there had not been in the other for the captain a blunt good natured fellow had his handsome wife with him who was disposed to be lively and agree able as were a few other ladypassengers who had their seats about us at the same end of the table


but nothing could have made head against the depressing in fluence of the general body


there was a magnetism of dulness in them which would have beaten down the most face tious companion that earth ever knew


a jest would have been a crime and a smile would have faded into a grinning horror


such deadly leaden people such syste matic plodding weary insupportable hea viness such a mass of animated indiges tion in respect of all that was genial jovial frank social or hearty never sure was brought together elsewhere since the world began


nor was the scenery as we approached the junction of the ohio and the mississippi rivers at all inspiriting in its influence


the trees were stunted in their growth the banks were low and flat the settle ments and log cabins fewer in number their inhabitants more wan and wretched than we had encountered yet


no songs of birds were m their air no pleasant scents no moving lights and shadows from swift passing clouds


hour after hour the changeless glare of the hot unwinking sky shone upon the same monotonous objects


hour after hour the river rolled along as wearily and slowly as the time itself


at length upon the morning of the third day we arrived at a spot so much more desolate than any we had yet beheld that the forlornest places we had passed were in comparison with it full of interest


at the junction of the two rivers on ground so flat and low and marshy that at certain seasons of the year it is inundated to the housetops lies a breedingplace of fever ague and death vaunted in england as a mine of golden hope and speculated in on the faith of monstrous representations to many peoples ruin


a dismal swamp on which the halfbuilt houses rot away cleared here and there for the space of a few yards and teeming then with rank unwholesome vegetation in whose baleful shade the wretched wanderers who are tempted hither droop and die and lay their bones the hateful mississippi circling and eddying before it and turning off upon its southern course a slimy monster hideous to behold a hotbed of disease an ugly sepulchre a grave uncheered by any gleam of promise a place without one single quality in earth or air r water to commend it such is this dismal cairo


but what words shall describe the mis sissippi great father of rivers who praise be to heaven has no young children like him


an enormous ditch sometimes two or three miles wide running liquid mud six miles an hour its strong and frothy current choked and obstructed everywhere by huge logs and whole forest trees now twining themselves together in great rafts from the interstices of which a sedgy lazy foam works up to float upon the waters top now rolling past like monstrous bodies their tangled roots showing like matted hair now glancing singly by like glint leeches and now writhing round and round in the vortex of some small whirl pool like wounded snakes


the banks low the trees dwarfish the marshes swarm ing with frogs the wretched cabins few and far apart their inmates hollowcheeked and pale the weather very hot mosquitoes penetrating into every crack and crevice of the boat mud and slime on everything nothing pleasant in its aspect but the harmless lightning which flickers every night upon the dark horizon


for two days we toiled up this foul stream striking constantly against the floating timber or stopping to avoid those more dangerous obstacles the snags or sawyers which are the hidden trunks of trees that have their roots below the tide


when the nights are very dark the look out stationed in the head of the boat knows by the ripple of the water if any great impediment be near at hand and rings a bell beside him which is the signal for the engine to be stopped but always in the night this bell has work to do and after every ring there comes a blow which renders it no easy matter to remain in bed


the decline of the day here was very gorgeous tinging the firmament deeply with red and gold up to the very keystone of the arch above us


as the sun went down behind the bank the slightest blades of grass upon it seemed to become as dis tinctly visible as the arteries in the skeleton of a leaf and when as it slowly sank the red and golden bars upon the water grew dimmer and dimmer yet as if they were sinking too and all the glowing colours of departing day paled inch by inch before the sombre night the scene became a thousand times more lonesome and more dreary than before and all its influences darkened with the sky


we drank the muddy water of this river while we were upon it


it is considered wholesome by the natives and is some thing more opaque than gruel


i have seen water like it at the filtershops but nowhere else


on the fourth night after leaving lous ville we reached st louis and here i witnessed the conclusion of an incident trifling enough in itself but very pleasant to see which had interested me during the whole journey


there was a little woman on board with a little baby and both little woman and little child were cheerful good looking bright eyed and fair to see


the little woman had been passing a long time with her sick mother in new york and had left her home in st louis in that condi tion in which ladies who truly love their lords desire to be


the baby was born in her mothers house and she had not seen her husband to whom she was now re turning for twelve months having left him a month or two after their marriage


well to be sure there never was a little woman so full of hope and tenderness and love as this little woman was and all day long she wondered whether he would be at the wharf and whether he had got her letter and whether if she sent the baby ashore by somebody else he would know it meeting it in the street which seeing that he had never set eyes upon it in his life was not very likely in the abstract but was probable enough to the young mother


she was such an artless little creature and was in such a sunny beaming hopeful state and let out all this matter clinging close about her heart so freely that all the other lady passengers entered into the spirit of it as much as she and the captain who heard all about it from his wife was wonderous sly i promise you inquiring every time we met at table as in forgetfulness whether she expected any body to meet her at st louis and whether she would want to go on shore the night we reached it but he supposed she wouldnt and cutting many other dry jokes of that nature


there was one little weazen driedapplefaced old woman who took occasion to doubt the constancy of husbands in such circum stances of bereavement and there was another lady with a lap dog old enough to moralize on the lightness of human affec tions and yet not so old that she could help nursing the baby now and then or laughing with the rest when the little woman called it by its fathers name and asked it all manner of fantastic questions concerning him in the joy of her heart


it was something of a blow to the little woman that when we were within twenty miles of our destination it became clearly necessary to put this baby to bed


but she got over it with the same good humour tied a handkerchief round her head and came out into the little gallery with the rest


then such an oracle as she became in reference to the localities


and such facetiousness as was displayed by the married ladies


and such sympathy as was shown by the single ones


and such peals of laughter as the little woman her self who would just as soon have cried greeted every jest with


at last there were the lights of st louis and here was the wharf and those were the steps and the little woman covering her face with her hands and laughing or seeming to laugh more than ever ran into her own cabin and shut herself up


i have no doubt that in the charming inconsistency of such excite ment she stopped her ears lest she should hear him asking for her but i did not see her do it


then a crowd of people rushed on board though the boat was not yet made fast but was wandering about among the other boats to find a landingplace and everybody looked for the husband and nobody saw him when in the midst of us allheaven knows how she ever got therethere was the little woman clinging with both arms tight round the neck of a fine goodlooking sturdy young fellow


and in a moment afterwards there she was again actually clapping her little hands for joy as she dragged him through the small door of her small cabin to look at the baby as he lay asleep


we went to a large hotel called the planters house built like an english hospital with long passages and bare walls and skylights above the roomdoors for the free circulation of air


there were a great many boarders in it and as many lights sparkled and glistened from the windows down into the street below when we drove up as if it had been illuminated on some occasion of rejoicing


it is an excellent house and the proprietors have most bountiful notions of providing the creature comforts


dining alone with my wife in our own room one day i counted fourteen dishes on the table at once


in the old french portion of the town the thoroughfares are narrow and crooked and some of the houses are very quaint and picturesque being built of wood with tumbledown galleries before the windows approachable by stairs or rather ladders from the street


there are queer little barbers shops and drinking houses too in this quarter and abundance of crazy old tenements with blinking casements such as may be seen in flanders


some of these ancient habitations with high garret gablewindows poking into the roofs have a kind of french shrug about them and being lopsided with age appear to hold their heads askew besides as if they were grimacing in astonishment at the american improvements


it is hardly necessary to say that these consist of wharfs and warehouses and new buildings in all directions and of a great many vast plans which are still progressing


already however some very good houses broad streets and marble fronted shops have gone so far ahead as to be in a state of completion and the town bids fair in a few years to improve considerably though it is not likely ever to vie in point of elegance or beauty with cincinnati


the roman catholic religion intro duced here by the early french settlers prevails extensively


among the public institutions are a jesuit college a con vent for the ladies of the sacred heart and a large chapel attached to the college which was in course of erection at the time of my visit and was intended to be consecrated on the second of december in the present year


the architect of this building is one of the reverend fathers of the school and the works pro ceed under his sole direction


the organ will be sent from belgium


in addition to these establishments there is a roman catholic cathedral de dicated to saint francis xavier and a hospital founded by the munificence of a deceased resident who was a member of that church


it also sends missionaries from hence among the indian tribes


the unitarian church is represented in this remote place as in most parts of america by a gentleman of great worth and excellence


the poor have good rea son to remember and bless it for it be friends them and aids the cause of ra tional education without any sectarian or selfish views


it is liberal in all its ac tions of kind construction and of wide benevolence


there arc three freeschools already erected and in full operation in this city


a fourth is building and will soon be opened


no man ever admits the unhealthiness of the place he dwells in unless he is going away from it and i shall there fore i have no doubt be at issue with the inhabitants of saint louis in questioning the perfect salubrity of its climate and in hinting that i think it must rather dispose to fever in the summer and autumnal sea sons


just adding that it is very hot lies among great rivers and has vast tracts of undrained swampy land around it i leave the reader to form his own opinion


as i had a great desire to see a prairie before turning back from the fur thest point of my wanderings and as some gentlemen of the town had in their hospitable consideration an equal desire to gratify me a day was fixed before my departure for an expedition to the lookingglass prairie which is within thirty miles of the town


deeming it possible that my readers may not object to know what kind of thing such a gipsy party may be at that distance from home and among what sort of objects it moves i will describe the jaunt in another chapter


chapter v turn turn again


there yet ii time to flcr nj une liearirelt prayer


yet


he who perithed died to tare flic lost the fallen the outcast tew he connuered hell and deatb and crave for siuners he can pitrdon you


then turn again the uncrcatc haih opened heavens eternal gate


and mints and seraph join in prayer to hail repentant tinners there


eustace fleming


the life of edith hamilton is a tale that might soften the heart of a stoic


to trace man in his long career of vice and infamy to look upon tbc lord of the creation bowing his no bler attributes to the fuul shrines of intemperance and dishonour or to trace ihe blight of each higher feel ing in a course of libertinism and de bauchery each all are bad but dreadful as it is man if it wills him so is able to contend with the thral doms lhat bind his spirit he knows ma i nil hui iu nisi iuigiu iuv vasuib of youth he feels that libertinism is a species of recognized and allowable failing but with woman it is other wise she has no holdfast to throw round her when she has once launch ed on the ocean of dissipation


the world makes no allowance for her errors and refuses to palliate her weaknesses the first step taken she can rise no more


how damning then must be the curse attached to him who takes advantage of one un guarded moment to pludge woman into sin and lo render her future life one of bitterness and regret


percival was rejoiced as all must rejoice that edith had not been wholly sacrificed


it afforded him pure and heartfelt satisfaction that she had been snatched as u brand from the burning and he endea roured by every means that he warm est interest could dictate o revive the old tastes and affections that once ex isted in her heart


he endeavoured to present new objects and new ex citements to her mind and by afford ing her intellectual enjoyment to wean her from regretting the loss of those sensual indulgences from which he had weaned her


at limes indeed he fancied lhat he perceived her sorrowing though he knew not why and when the news reached him lhat she had led from the protection he had afforded her i be lamented his illrequited labours more that they had failed in giving happiness fo act than that his own endeavours had been sacrificed in i vain


a few days after he received from her an apology for her doings so touching yet so true lhat it un folded to him a page in the human i heart which as yet he had never read ii mine were a tale of fiction


might i seek to unravel those mysterious threads thai make up ihe strings ofhu man feeling lliose chords of exquisite sensibility and buttoooften like ibis of mistaken feeling from which arises so much of the false sentiment lhat per


vades ihe whole atmosphere of society but mine is a true tale neither wrought i up into bright scenes of happiness i nor deeply shaded in its dark career of sin a picture of life is all that


i


i have aimed at


should the reader require stronger food for his imagina tion he must seek it in the page of fiction mine is lhat of truth


percivals heart bled whilst he read the following percival the world would have i deemed me an ungrateful wretch for flying from your bounty but you will


not do so for you arc always more ready to forgive than condemn


you will excuse me foi leaving a stalion of constant wretchedness although to many it would have been one of hap piness


prrcival i assure you that every gratification with which i was surrounded was embittered by the thought that it was undeserved


yon who have not trodden in a career of reck lets lice can hardly judge of the fierceness and strength of every pas sion which it engenders yon cannot be aware of the loathing it produces for every thing that is noble and good your kindness snatched me from a headlong course of infamy and guilt you placed mo in a station lo be envied you endeavoured to draw me back to virtue and plant anew the seeds of religion and virtue but you were casting your seed upon a barren rock


you lidle thought to sow good wheat nnd to reap arcs or that one whom you knew in happier hours could be so utterly lost but so it is percival since childhood never had any strict principles of virtue taught me


was taught the follies of the world the admiration i might com mand the superiority of pleasure


became vain and arrogant


circum stances threw we upon the world


i could not gire up the indulgences i lad become accustomed to and was soou lost lo virtue iben lo hoaour then to feeling lost utterly but for you


percival when i first fell my mind was so veiled wilh the dazzling glaro of imagined pleasure and antici pated delight that had not suffici ent reason left lo know thai


i was ful ling until i was too car gone to re code


it was then when i awakened from my dream to a full sense of my wild career when felt all those pangs of anguish und remorse lhat steep the soul in a lethargy from i which nothing but new excitements can awake it when a pause in the i course of dissipation awakened me lo the damning torment that ensues from an unrestrained pursuit of forbidden pleasure pleasure did i say phan tom rather hideous phantom created in the sinning imagination and in vested with charms by the spirit ot its maker which at length overpowers its creator and leads him into wilder abysses of guilt than ever franken stein was led by the monster he cre ated so was it with inc


the phan tom followed me like a shadow the blandishments which first invested it arc forgotten and the hideous outline of its lineaments remains and then when the racking brain and the ach ing heart tell of wasted hours and wanton desires what remains to ban ish thought so maddening but new excess s new excitements and a new awakening lo wretchedness nnj sin


pcrcival i dare not offer you the polluted thanks of a wretched and li centious being


i shall soon be losl in the degradation that awaits me


in death i have a secret to tell will you be a friend to me then


i know you will seek not to find me out till then but forget and forgive the truant edith hamilton


to be continued


lights and shadows of immigrant life


chapter vi contents


a new house required the irish landlord high rents for slender accommodation new houses beget new wants mrs hayes must have a servant sydney herberts needle women visit to the immigrant depot


des cription of its inmates a servant and her conduct


seated one evening at the table after enjoying a good dinner the cost of the few dishes of which it consisted having as usual formed a sort of commentary on the expense of living on which mrs hayes loved to expa tiate hayes himself was enjoying a pipe and glancing over the columns of an english newspaper he had that day received when the lady having taken breath after the discourse on the cost of the dinner again began and addressing her husband said


well my dear what do you think when georgina and i were out today we heard of such a nice cot tage a brick one of four rooms that will be empty next week


i was so glad to hear of it for i dont like this shed of a place at all


and have you seen the cottage said mr hayes what is it like


why replied mrs hayes it is a very snug little place within a short distance of this just up the road there


there is a very small plot of ground in front and i had the curiosity to knock at the door and ask to see the accommodation


the woman was barely civil but further than the sitting room she would not allow me to see but it was a good room though small


do you think it would suit us replied mr hayes i thing it would said mrs hayes


then go and secure it by all means tomorrow for you know i only took this place till something better shall turn up


but what do you think the rent is replied the prudent mrs hayes


i dont know responded hayes perhaps three or four pounds a week


perhaps three or four pounds a week exclaimed mrs hayes


why you seem to consider that a very light matter but i dont though


yes the landlord will not let the cottage under four pounds a week did you ever hear of such a rent


oh yes coolly replied hayes taking an extra pull at his pipe and then knocking the ashes out of it thats nothing here you know


nothing here you know why hayes how pro voking you are


where is the money to come from to pay such a rent never expected we could get one cheaper replied hayes but these things will find their level by and bye


well you do take things very lightly my dear but i assure you i dont said mrs hayes however be the rent what it may i shall be glad to quit this miser able place


then take the cottage at once by all means re plied mr hayes you cant make a better bargain for houses are not to be got and landlords know it


well then i shall see tomorrow said mrs hayes but i must try and get the landlord to let us have it cheaper


four pounds a week for a four roomed cottage


why it is ridiculous


you wont get it cheaper though replied hayes landlords know their game and depend upon it if you want the house go and take it for if you dont an other will


poor mrs hayes after a deal of grumbling at the rent at length said that as the house appeared likely to suit she might as well take it and accord ingly on the following morning she and her daughter set off to secure the cottage


the landlord was a goodhumored looking irishman with the true celtic character of countenance and a rich brogue


on mrs hayes stating her errand and venturing to inquire if the rent was so much as four pounds a week


is it the rint ye are speaking of said mr mcgrath sure and for such an illigant house ye cannot be grudge the rint


it is very high for such accommodation mrs hayes remonstrated surely you might take some thing less


we will take good care of your property


the divil a penny less maam replied mr mcgrath


i can let the house over and over agin when there is such a flush of tinants


seeing it was of no further use to argue the matter with mr mcgrath who really did no more than what he was quite entitled to do to let his property which he had built out of his own hard earnings to the best advantage


mrs hayes took the cottage paying a deposit and agreeing to pay the rent in advance weekly as is the custom in the colony


mr mcgrath and she parted very good friends after stipulating as to the day of entry and the execution of certain necessary repairs to which the blunt irishman promised to attend and which he fulfilled to the letter


in due time mr hayes and his family removed to the cottage not sorry to leave the poor shed in which however they had spent many happy days defective as the accommodation was


the comfort of a brick cottage over one of rough paling was so superior that mrs hayes half forgot her scruples about the rent in the pleasurable feeling of comfort around her


new houses however beget new wants and mrs hayes be gan seriously to consider whether it would not be neces sary to have a servant girl to assist in the house a work which she and her daughter had hitherto per formed with entire satisfaction to themselves and the comfort of the family


she considered that as hayes had been rather successful in some speculations he had engaged in they could afford to indulge in a little extra expense and then she was desirous if possible to secure a rich colonist for her daughter georgina who was really a most attractive and showy looking girl and she considered this might be effected by giving her more time for display in public as well as impart to her a more ladylike appearance


like many mothers mrs hayes looked a good deal to external appearances for getting in her fond admiration of her child that the gloss of beauty like that of a new shilling wears off while the sterling qualities imparted by good education and above all by habits of industry and strict atten tion to household duties remain through life


accordingly taking a quiet opportunity when her husband was enjoying his pipe as usual in his arm chair mrs hayes commenced operations in the general manner married ladies adopt when they have an object to gain by insinuating that really the work was too much for both her and georgina who poor thing had little time to herself and could get nowhere


dont you think hayes said mrs h that we had better get a girl to assist in the house


to plague your life out replied hayes quietly puffing at his pipe and pray where are you to get one for i hear female servants are not to be had at all


oh i think i will find one if you approve of my doing so said mrs hayes with an insinuating smile


i see by the papers that only yesterday there is a vessel arrived with a lot of young women sent out by the society in london in which mr sydney herbert and several other great folks take such an interest


sydney herberts needlewomen i suppose and a precious lot they will be truly


said mr hayes


they are said to be a very unprofitable class of girls according to the report in the newspapers re plied mrs hayes


i think among so many a good one might be got


better go and try said hayes be in time and taking up the newspaper i see they open for selection at eleven oclock tomorrow


well i shall go and see them at all events whether i get suited or not responded mrs hayes evidently pleased that she had gained her husbands approval so far


a cargo of sydney herberts needlewomen had indeed arrived little to the advantage of the colony


they were totally unfitted in the majority of cases for do mestic service as the zealous and no doubt very bene volent promoters of the scheme intended


they came to the colony with ideas far beyond their station and instead of adding to the industrial and useful class of colonists the bulk of them were found ere long only increasing the ranks of those unfortunate and misguided girls who are but too numerous in the colony be much so as to become literally a nuisance in the streets of melbourne


the batch of female immigrants before alluded to ar rived at a time when every kind of property was advanc ing and provisions were very dear


the lucky diggers had drained off a large number of the unmarried females for wives so that there was really a great scarcity of female labor


whether this had been communicated to the young ladies just arrived in the nonsuch or not the reader must form his own conjectures but certain it is that when the steamer arrived at coles wharf with these blooming nymphs on board they presented a very gay and showy appear ance being as fine as dress could make them


accus tomed however to the well paved streets and flagged pavements of london the fair immigrants were not aware of the difficulties of traversing primitive ground over which the potent wand of macadam had never been waved in wet weather for the winter had now set in and were habited in a way more suited to the promenade than the mud of melbourne wharf


on landing the fine delicatelooking boots and sandal slippers were speedily immersed in mire


nor was that the only difficulty they had to encounter for from the want of solidity the ground actually slipped from under them so that they had the greatest difficulty in keeping their equilibrium


many were the exclamations of sor row or surprise expressed in language according to the taste of the individual that escaped them but at last they were collected together and under the escort of three or four policeman in heavy thigh boots marched in indian file across the swampy ground lying between the wharf and flinders street towards king street in which the immigrants depot was situated


this was however a work of no little difficulty as the flimsy nature of the feet coverings of the ladies could ill con tend with tenacious mud of the swamp and many were the lamentations that were soon heard of the loss of a shoe here and the rupture of a boot there together with the bespattered and bedraggled look of their gay co lored dresses afforded infinite amusement to the numerous onlookers most of whom wore heavy boots coming up past the knees and therefore prepared to encounter the mud and sludge that everywhere abounded


nor did the fair detachment find much better footing in king street than they did in crossing the swamp


the road and footway were very much cut up and though not reckoned formidable by the well booted colonist it ap peared a perfect slough of despond to a batch of cockney ladies who had never been without the reach of the sound of bow bells or whose experience of mud did not extend beyond what they had viewed from the deck of a river steamer at greenwich at low water


in due time however all obstacles were at last sur mounted and the fair immigrants were safely lodged in the depot where they had to occupy themselves in clear ing off the defilements of the journey not a little cha grined that they were not seen to better advantage on their first landing in the golden colony


on the following morning the depot was to be thrown open to the public at eleven oclock and those who were in want of servants were to obtain an order at the immi gration office before they could be admitted


mrs hayes and her daughter were early in attendance but early as they were they found such a number before them that it was some time before they could either get an order or gain admittance after they got one


the weather had been so wet that the majority of the ladies in quest of servants who ventured out wore wellington boots and warm serviceable dresses in some instances giving them a roughlooking appearance


but old colonists did not mind this having long been convinced that comfort was of much greater consequence than appearance


numbers of gentlemen were also there deputed by their better halves to choose one or more of the newlyarrived damsels and they too were mostly rough looking customers very different from the dapper and spruce looking londoner as he walks along cheapside even on a wet and foggy november day


the bustle at the door of the depot when mrs hayes arrived there was considerable


some of the early comers were already coming out with those they had chosen and engaged while a policeman at the door took care that only a certain number of servantseekers were admitted at one time


it was not therefore till after some little delay that mrs hayes was admitted into the apartment where the girls were in order to see them


in an apartment of a wooden building of but mode rate dimensions were seen the needle women as they were generally termed walking about in couples while a few were driving bargains for service with those who came seeking them


many of them were very good looking but for the most part they had all the airs and flippancy of the genuine cockney


one girl appeared conspicuous amongst the bevy she was a tall noble looking woman with a face and figure that a duchess might have envied


she sailed about humming an opera air with the greatest dignity and uniformly rejected every offer of an engagement that was made to her


she evidently had no relish for domestic service and only waited for some opportunity of release by ac cepting as easy a place as she could secure


the subse quent career of this girl might readily be surmised by the keen observer of human nature


mingling in the throng mrs hayes spoke to some of the girls but she was speedily taken aback by the flippant and cool manner with which they received her


addressing one who with another girl was slowly parading the floor she asked her if she would engage and if she had been accustomed to household work


do you keep one or two maids maam said the damsel for i will not take a place where my dear friend cannot go with me we wish to go together referring to the girl who was walking with her


mrs hayes looked astonished


she replied she wanted only one as she intended to keep only one


then said this hopeful young lady i cannot engage in any family where i am not to have a com panion


then you wont suit me said mrs hayes and i can tell you that you will find but few places here where two servants are kept


well then i shant engage at all unless i am to have a companion it would be so lonely languishingly exclaimed this specimen of female labor and she turned round and walked off leaving poor mr hayes in amazement at her impudence


in the apartment were a considerable number of ladies and gentlemen in want of servants


they seemed to afford considerable amusement to the needle women who were overheard making the most insolent remarks on the visitors


what frights those port phillip ladies are to be sure said one impudent looking girl to her companion for they were generally in couples


well if there is not one with a pair of mens boots on did you ever cary


no i never replied the hopeful cary with a disdainful toss of her head and indulging at the same time in very unseemly laughter


oh what a shocking bad bonnet exclaimed another loud enough to be heard by most of the visitors


i should not like that one for a mistress any how remarked another girl to her friend oh my eye look at that ere


amid all this the tall fine looking girl was sailing about by herself looking with the utmost contempt on the various ladies and gentlemen in the room several of whom offered her an engagement but after a little parley they generally found she had some objection or other to their proposals


mrs hayes observing that the matron in charge seemed to have some influence over the girls and that several visitors had got supplied through her interven tion at length applied to her when she immediately called to a stout looking but sallow complexioned damsel whom she assured mrs hayes would suit as she had no objections to go where one servant only was kept and said the matron she will go to a good place for twentyfive pounds a year


have you ever been in service before


enquired mrs hayes of the girl


no maam i have not honestly replied the damsel i have only worked in my fathers house but i am willing to learn i suppose your family is not large and no young children for i will not go to a place where babies are


oh said mrs hayes you are very particular


there are six of us altogether and no babies and since the matron recommends you i have no objections to make a trial


when can you come tomorrow said the girl but you must send for my boxes


oh yes replied mrs hayes i will send for your boxes and you can come in the dray with them


come in a dray mam


me ride in a common car


exclaimed the young lady with offended dignity


have you not a better conveyance than a common dray


no said mrs hayes i have no other convey ance for you


many respectable people here ride in a dray


here the matron interfered and assured the girl her dignity would not be compromised though she rode in a dray and that she might be thank ful she had got such a good engagement


this appeased our needlewoman who after fixing the hour at which she would be ready to leave the depot with mrs hayes that lady left the place with a very indifferent opinion as to the value of mr sydney her berts needlewomen to the colony judging from the spe cimens she had seen


to close this portion of our story the girl came home in a dray with her boxes and for a few days ap peared very steady and anxious to please though she knew little of household work


finding her ignorant of all but the lowest ideas of low london life mrs hayes took some pains to improve her in which effort she was seconded by her daughter till on sunday evening hav ing liberty to go out she never made her appearance for three days at the end of which time she called at mrs hayes house with a man and demanded her boxes


too glad to be rid of such a hopeless help mrs hayes gave up the boxes and the next time this infatuated girl was seen was at the door of a publichouse in bourke street in a state of intoxication in company with several abandoned characters


such has been the career of a large proportion of those female immigrants from the heart of large cities who depraved in their habits at home a misplaced benevolence considered it no sin by sending them out to inflict an irreparable in jury on a young and rising community a new country which required to be supplied with labor of the best and most deserving description because the remunera tion was good instead of the worthless and depraved of which so many have been thus sent


it may serve the purpose of these benevolent


individuals to clear off those unfortunate creatures but there are other means they might adopt without putting them in the way of further temptation or injuring an infant colony with their presence and bad example


itffimfcwfiw m story of a feather


v arugift tvtav


a story from pouch chapter xl


concluded from our last


a summary of my latter wanderings conclusion


a short time andmr gauntwolf forgetting to return me to the theatrei became the property of his victim daughter


sudden arid fatal was the misery that fell upon the house of gaiintwolf


he himself despite of hi moral fetor had maintained his ground at tho playhouseha was so useful


ha was shunned loathed by all the company but the ma nap r would not confound moral principles with professional utility


gauntwolf was endowed with a deep brassy voice an excellent organ for small tyrants and ruffians


in an evil hour fevered with winehis lordships winehe ventured into the foggy midnight air and wat struck with sudden and enduring hoarseness


the sounding brass had lost its tone and gauntwolf banished the stage lived out his loathsome life in direst misery upon his daughter


full soon his lordship illustrated the proverbial inconstancy of man and then step tiy step the wretched girl


no


i i was her forced companion in the downward path of horror but i will i mutt be dumb i


for the father have aid ithis gray hairs were to him as a crown of penal fire


i had witnessed many scene of norria mirth when i was consigned to the trusty guardianship of a pawnbroker


after a happy seclusion of some months i was sold with other stock to the first purchaser of my spotless beauty shadwell jacobs


he poor man was bowed with sorrow to the earth for like unto jessicaalbeit miriam was unconscious of the bright example his daughter had robbed him and become the wife of a christian


shadrach was a rich miserable childless wretch still gathering wealth about him as arms against death


shdrach sold me to an undertaker


whose funeral is this


this question was put to an elderly decent dame a pewopener from the magdalen


god bless him i answered the woman and her eyes moistened


it is a sad story


you see sir he had been a sailor and had come home with means for life


he had left his sweetheart in his native town and was the next day going home to marry her


in the evening he came to our church


shall i ever forget his healthy happy face when i showed him to a seat


yet when the service was over he seemed changedthere was a sort of shadow in his looks


a month after ne carne back sir and then was his face as fixed ond white as any stone


his bride that was to have been had left her homehad lost herself and become an outcast


the very night he first came to us was the last time jessie for that was her name sir sang in the chapel


she had been long ill of consumption and died a week after


it seems that the man had heard her voice among the others and though he could not think it jessys still it troubled him


ho went home and learnt the dreadful story came to londontraced the unhappy creature step by step to the magdalen where i have said she died


but still he carnohe never missed a day and every time looked paler thinner than the last


he was indeed a kind a gentle soul


indeed sir there are such thing at broken hearts i hat the reader forgotten jessie the strickenhearted penitent


such was her closing history such the end of her betrothed husband


i will not dwell upon the rapid changes i now experienced


from the undertaker i passed to mayfair thence to a booth of mountebanks and final degradation at length torn and mutilated i was presented by the columbine of a fair to her lover the proprietor of a dromedary and monkey


was placed as an ornament in a monkeys cap and my wearer being seated on the dromedarys back i was enabled to consider out door life from an advantageous eminence


as the monkey twitched his cap on and off at the command of his master and so rumpled me sadly it is true that i felt an occasional twinge at the indignity that i who had commenced life as one of the plums of a prince of wales should end in a monkeys bonnet and become the beggar of halfpenny pieces


such were now and then my thoughts but whistled them ofi with a gay philosophy that said pooh pooh leis be merry


my situation had this advantage


as i was cairied to all parts of london and travelled every portion of the country i learned the history of many of my old acquaintances


it is true i learnt it by snatches but yet sufficiently to piece out a story


hence one day whilst my master was exhibiting his wonders the dromedary and myself at tyburn turnpike i beheld among the crowd leaning upon the arm of a stalwart looking tradesman dear mrs cramp the cardmakers idow


bat there nat such happiness in her facesuch heartiness in her laughter at my friend the monkey approached and doffed his bonnet to her that i was convinced ber shattered heart had been newly cemented by a second marriage


it is true the stood upon the deathspot ot aoranam unckiytor tnc hihrnyroan mu icolly hungudnevertheless it was plain she thought not of it


yes she was married


the tone in which i beard hersay come love or becky will scold us for spoiling the dinner fang with wedded bliss


and becky tile faithful becky still kept her place and her mistresss lccu we are in the goodly town of


at the crown inn nominally kept by julius curlwell hut really governed by his wife late mrs pillow and housekeeper of the earl of uluibroie


my matter with courtesy not common to beast proprietors blandly asks of the host the hospitality of a stable


curlwell turnt with a look of mute inquiry towards his wifei know her though brandy has made tier red as ruddle when mrs curlwell vows shell have no beasts there she has beast enough in the laiy fellow


shes obliged to keep


my master nevertheless enters the taproom and i follow bim


sweet most sweet is it to leam that julius curlwell the plague and persecutor of fanny butler is sentenced for life to the excoriating voice of a shrew with an occasional visitation from rollingpin or candlestick


we halt at a village


the dromedary shows his paces the monkey holds forth hit cap with most beseeching air


a lady comes from a cottage


he monkeywelleducated beggar besets her the ladythere is a sweet benignity in her eyes thbuch her face is stained with diseasesmiles and drops a shilling in the monkeys cap


well thats a real lady down to th stocking says my master and elate with the gift scats himself upon an alehouse bench and calls for a mug of te


thats a real tady she ia repeated my master to the host of the load of hay who had beheld the monetary transaction


shes a angel turned to a woman says the landlord and more than that shes a real countess countess blushrose


bleu


you i the wa the beauty of six counties once


i cant tay much for her beauty observes roy master buta shilling it like o lady


la bless you answers the publican


when she was beautiful nobody could bear her and then she and her hatband like poker and tongs wat always on opposite side


you see she thought all the world wat in her ace and nothing out of it


shed as toon a gone iiito


a pigttye with silk stockings on as walked into a poor mans cottage thennowthet altogether different


hows that asks my master


yow see one night at a ball over dancing or something of that tort she caught thethei dont know why they give sickness such hard names unless to frighten itthethe erysiptilusa


sipelas says the hostess man and wife knowing the word between them


thats it well that was enough


there was no more beauty and though the countess at first tore her hair and broke a fortin in lookingglasses she listened to reason in the end gave up london and all that went among the poornursed em talked to em just as if they were ber own flesh and blood and now she doesnt ttir that the doesnt walk out in a shower of blessings


such became the countess blushrose


we travelled to the ext village


ha


heres is mantrap park tlie teat pf the two miss peachicks the lodgers of flamingothe visitors to newgatethe sympathising sudden friends of patty butler


whyyesthere fs patty at the window


it it she and happiness bat given radiance to her tweet kind face


a spirit of joy seems about her thnt poor strong meekhearted tenant o a prison i


and there too are the dear old peachicks


there they are twin sisters of benevolence


cratures preserved from the hurry and the coarseness of life to be the simple imswonien of human kindness


the monkey runs to the windowbow my heart beats at patty leans forward with a cake between her small fingers for the little beast


how beautiful she looks


for it is tbe beauty of innocent happiness


horrormisery


a huge dogthe peachicks petseises the monkey and amidst it tcretms patty rushes out to the rescue


i the monkey is carried into the house it is not hurt and its master more than recompensed for the terror of hit animal goea onward goes onward happily without me for falling from the monkeys cap upon the carpet i remalli undiscovered


the next morning the servant arranging the room placetmc upon the mantelpiece


the postmans knock and pattys face it now white now crimson


a letter it brought her one glance and the rum from the room


ii j from nw on of he mist peacmefct


of cours sert trie otter frort who elie indeed


i and hat arrived tayt the elder


fjio doubt of it corroborates the junior


jhbvjjtman f entert tbe room and ptecet tht letter the hands of the eldest lady


il


from inglewood she criet


tremolina all ovtjr fe tff ni tbe missive end reeds tg


another day my beloved petty and i theil be et joar aid


frevel bee awarded me the whhedfor hinting health blessing atiu fq be crowned by your love


jjxjiesf s frand o quick sympathies acknowledged our intiflcefcewho have protected sheltered ye if nee that dtrybut i will not thfnk fitbless toem brets them i never mind that kays tbe younger miss peachlck


tomorrow i return


the earl of blushrose has added to the obligation which enabled me to travel the meant of sptteec ftum but sufficient curacy in your neighbour tom


tomorrow end i claim a wife


thine with deepest love koskm imolbwood


yow shall d married the day after ays the elder miss peachtcfc


or at mott the day after that added the younger


inglewood returned and patty though not quite so soon became the curates wife


lintley and his little spouse attended the solemnity and long and sweetly placid were the day rewarding thefit trials of the gferitle alhehdnririg featherdresser


personal adventures of master humphrey


tiub old curiosity sopchapter xxxv


mn brass on returning home received the report of his clerk with much complacency and satisfaction and was particular in inquiring after the ten pound note which proving on examination to be a good and lawful note of the governor and company of the bank of england increased his humour considerably


indeed he so overflowed with liberality and condes cension that in the fulness of his heart he invited mr swiveller to partake of a bowl of punch with him at that remote and indefinite period which is currently denominated one of these days and paid him many handsome compliments on the un common aptitude for business which his conduct on the first day of his devotion to it had so plainly evinced


it was a maxim with mr brass that the habit of paying compliments kept a mans tongue oiled with out any expense and as that useful member ought never to grow rusty or creak in turning on its hinges in the case of the practitioner of the law in whom it should be always glib and easy he lost few oppor tunities of improving himself by the utterance of handsome speeches and eulogistic expressions


and this had passed into such an habit with him that if he could not be correctly said to have his tongue at his fingers ends ha might certainly be said to have it anywhere but in his face which being as we have already seen of a harsh and repulsive character was not oiled so easily but frowned above all the smooth speeches one of natures beacons warning off those who navigated the shoals and breakers of the world or of that dangerous strait the law and admonishing them to seek less treacherous harbours and try their fortune elsewhere


while mr brass by turns overwhelmed his clerk with compliments and inspected the ten pound note miss sally showed little emotion and that of no pleasurable kind for as the tendency of her legal practice had been to fix her thoughts on small gains and gripings and to whet and sharpen her natural wisdom she was not a little disappointed that the single gentleman had obtained his lodgings at such an easy rate arguing that when he was seen to have set his mind upon them ihe should have been at the least charged double or treble the usual terms and that in exact proportion as he pressed forward mr swiveller should have hung back


but neither the good opinion of mr brass nor the dissatisfaction of miss sally wrought any impression upon that young gentleman who throwing the responsibility of this and all other acts and deeds thereafter to be done by him upon his unlucky destiny was quite resigned and comfortable fully prepared for the worst and philosophically indifferent to the best


good morning mr richard said brass on the second day of mr swivellers clerkship


sally found you a second hand stool sir yesterday evening in whitechapel


shes a rare fellow at a bargain i can tell you mr richard


youll find that a first rate stool sir take my word for it


its rather a crazy one to look at said dick


youll find it a most amazing stool to sit down upon you may depend returned mr brass


it was bought in the open street just opposite the hos pital and as it has been standing there a month or two it has got rather dusty and a little brown from being in the sun thats all


i hope it hasnt got any fevers or anything of that sort in it said dick sitting himself down discontentedly between mr sampson and the chaste sally


one of the legs is longer than the others


then we get a bit of timber in sir retorted brass


ha ha ha we get a bit of timber in sir and thats another advantage of my sisters eoing to market for us


miss brass mr richard is the will you keep quiet interrupted the fair sub ject of these remarks looking up from her papers


how am i to work if you keep on chattering what an uncertain chap you are i returned the lawyer


sometimes youre all for work


a man never knows what humour hell find you in


im in a working humour now said miss sally so dont disturb me if you please


and dont take him miss sally pointed with the feather of her pen to richard off his business


he wont do more than he can help i dare say


mr brass had evidently a strong inclination to make an angry reply but was deterred by prudent or timid considerations as he only muttered some thing about aggravation and a vagabond not asso ciating the terms with any individual but mentioning them as connected with some abstract ideas which happened to occur to him


they went on writing for a long time in silence after thisin such a dull silence that mr swiveller who required excitement had several times fallen asleep and written dived strange words in an unknown character with his eyes shut when miss sally at length broke in upon the monotony of the office by pulling out the little tin box taking a noisy pinch of snuff and then express ing her opinion that mr richard swivrller had done it


done what maam said richard


do you know returned miiss brass that the lodger isnt up yetthat nothing has been seen or heard of hiit since he went to bed yesterday after noon


well maam said dick i suppose lie may sleep isis ten pound out in peace or quietness if he likes


alh


i begin to think hell never wake ob served miss sally


its a very remarkable circumstance said brass laying down his pen really very remark able


mr richard youll remember if this gentle man should be found to have hung himtself to tse bedpost or any unpleasant accident of that kind should happenyoull remember mr richard that this tenpound note was given to you in part pay


ment of two years rentd youll bear that in mind mr richard you had better make a note of it sir in case you should ever be called upon to give evidence


mr swiveller took a large sheet of foolscap and withl a countenance of profound gravity began to make a very small note oin one corner


we can never be too cautious said mr brass


there is a deal of wickedness going about tie world a deal of wickedtess


did the gentleman happen to say sirbut nevermind that at present sir finish that little memorandum first


dick did so and handed it to mr brass who had dismounted from his stool and was walking up and down the ollice


oh this is thie memorandum is it said brass running his eye over the documnent


very good


now mr richard did the gentleman say anythling else no


are you sure mr richard said brass so lemnly that the gentleman said nothling else


devil a word sir replied dick


think again sir said brass its my duty sir in the position in which i stand and as an honourable member of thle legal profession the first profession in this country sir or in any othler country or in any of the planets that shine above us and amre supposed to be inhabited its my duty sir as on honourable member of thlat profession not to put to you a leading question in a matter of tlia delicacy and importance


did the gentlemnan sir who took the first floor of you yesterday afternoon and who brought with him a box of propertya box of propertysay anythling more tihan is set down in this memorandumt come dont be a fool said miss sally


dick looked at her and then at brass and thet


at miss sally again and still said no


poohl pooh i deuce take it mr richard how dull you are cried hrass relaxing into asmile


did hne say anything about hiis property lthere


tihats the way to put it said miss sally nodding to her brothec sdid he say for instance added irass in a kind of comfortable cozy tone i dont assert that he did say so mind i only ask you to refresh your menmorydid he say for instance that he was a stranger in londonthat it was not his humour or withint his abilities to give any referencesthat he felt we had a right to require themand that in ense anythini should happen to him at any time the particularly desired that whatever property he had upon the premises should be considered mine as some slight recompense for the trouble and annoyance should sustainand were you in short added brass still more comfortably dnd cozily than before were you induced to accept him on imy behalf as a tenant upon these conditions certainly not replied dick


vly then mr richard said blass darting at him a supercilious and reproachful look its my opinion that youve mistaken your calling and aill never mnake a lawyer


not if you live a thousand years added miss sally


whereupon the brother and sister took each a ntosy pinch of snuff from the little tin box and fell into a gloomy thoughtfulness


to be continued


l


imtiawtr tnlttlarrllfi llorlt


pieriisonal adveniiji es of i sti


i um ljllis y tit ld clu riosity spcttaptna xvii


another bright day shining in thlrough the small scasemenl and claiming followship with tile kindred eyes of the child awoke her


at sight of the strangu anom and its unnecnstomed objects sae started upil in alarm wondering how shlu had bleen moved froml tile familiar chatnber in whlich she seemled to hlave fallen asleep last niglht and whitller shie hald lbeen convyedt


ibut anothller glance around coaled to her nmind all tiat had lately tpassed and salo sprung front her bed hoping and trustlil


it was yet early and tile old manll being still asleep


sheo walked out into tile clhurchyard brushing the dew front the long grass with her feet and often turning aside into places where it grow longer than in others tlhat saltoe migt not tread upon the graves


she felt a curious kind of pleasure in lingering amlong tllese hlouses of tie dead and read the in scriptions on the tonlbs of the good people a great number of good people were buried there passing on from one to another with increasing interest


it was a very quiet place as such a place should be save for the cawing of the rooks who had built their nests among the branches of some tall old trees and were calling to one another high tip in air


first one sleek bird hovering near ihis ragged house as it swung and dangled in the wind uttering his hoarse cry quite by chance as it would seem and in a sober tone as though lie were but talking to him self


another answered and lie called again but louder than before then another spoke and then another and each time the first aggravated by con tradiction insisted on his case more strongly


othler voices silent till now struck in from boughs lower down and higher up and midway and to the tight and left and front the treetops and others arriving hastily from the grey church turrets and old belfry window joined tile clamour which rose and fell and swelled and dropped again and still went on and all this noisy contention amidst a skimming to and fro and lighting on freshl branches and frequent change of placo which satirised the olt restlessness of those who lay so still beneath the motss and turf below and the useless strife in which they htad worn away their lives


frequently raising liher eyes to the trees whence these sounds came down and feeling as though they made the place more quiet than perfect silence would have done the child loitered from grave to grave now stopping to replace with careful hands the bramble which had started from some green mound it helped to keep in shape and now peeping through one of the low latticed windows into tlhe church with its wormeaten books upon tilhe desks and baize of whitenedgreen mouldering front the pew sides and and leaving the naked wood to view


there were tihe seats where the poor old people sat worn spare and yellow like tllhemnselves the rugged front where children had their names the homely altar where they knelt in after life the plain black tressels that bore their weight on tlleir last visit to the cool old shady chllurcl


every thing told of long use and quiet slow decay tile very bellropo in tile porch was frayed into fringe and hoary with old age


she was looking at a humlble stone is hich told of a young nman who itad died at twentythree years old fiftyfive years ago when she heard a faaltering step approaclting and looking round saw a feeblu woman bent with the neight of years who tottered to tieo foot of that same grave and asked her to read the writing on the stone


tihe old woman tlhanked her when sale had done saying that slte had lhad the words by heart for many a long long year but could not see thlem now


were you his mother said the child


i was his wife my dear


she the wife of a young man of threeandtwenty


alt true


i it twas fiftyfive years ago


you wonder to itear me say that remarked the old woman shaking iter head


youre not the first


older folk than you have wondered at the same thing before now


yes i twas his wife


ieath doesnt change us mtore than life mly dear


io you come here often asked the child


i sit hero very often in tle sumamer time site answered i used to colno hero once to cry and mourn but that was a weary while ago bless god


i pluck the daisies as they grow and take them homesaid the old woman after a short silence


i like no flowers so well as these and havent for five and fifty year


its a long time and im getting very old


i then growing garrulous upon a theme which was new to one listener though it were but a child she told hier how she had wept and moaned and prayed to die herself when this happened and how when site first came to that place a young creature strong n love and grief site lhad hioped that her heart was reaking as it seemned to be


but thlat time piassedt by and althoughl sthe continued to be sad when she came thlere still she could hear to come and so went on until it was pain no lontger but a solemn pleasure and a duty site hiad learnt to like


and now that fiveandfifty years were gone shite spoke of the dead man as if hie hiad been hier son or grandson with a kind of plity for his youtlt growing out of her old age and an exalting of his strength and manly beauty as compared with her owst weakness and decay and yet she spoke about hint as hier hiusband too and thinking of herself in connexion with himin as she used to be and not as site was nowy talked of their meeting in anothler world as if hie were dead but yesterday and she separated from hier fornmer self were thlinking of the happiness of thlat comely girl who seemed to hiavo died with himin


the child left hier gathering tlhe flowers thlat grew upon tile grave and thloughltfully retraced hier steps


tlhe old mant was by thlis timne up and dressed


mr kosdlln still doomed to contemplate the iharshl realities ofexistence was packing among hiis linen the candleends vlwhiclh had been saved from thle pre vious nights perfornmance while hiis companion re ceived the compliments of all the loungers in tlhe stable yard who unable to separate hiin fromn tie mastermind of punchl set him down as next in im portance to that merry outlaw and loved hiim scarcely less


vlwhen ie ihad sulliciently acknowledged isis popularity he camne ill to breakfast at whlich meal they allisat dowt together


and where are you going today t said the little maon addressing timstolf to nell


sindeed


i hardly knowwe hiave not dletermnined yet replied thle child


were going on to thie races said the little mae


if thats your sway and like to have us for company let us travel togethler


if you prefer going alone only say the wvord


and youll findt that we alant trouble you


well go with you said the old mlan


nell withl them witll tlhemtn


the chlild considered for a moment and reflecting dhatshe ianust shortly beg satd could scnrcely hlope to do so at a better place tihan wuhere crowds of rich ladles and gentlnamon were assembled together for purposes of enjoyment and festivity determined to accompany these men so far


she therefore thankeid the little man ifot his offer and said glancing titmidly towards his friend that if there was no abjection to hlleir accompanying tlhem as far as the irace town objection i said tlihe little mao


now be gracious for once tlomny and say that youd ratlor they went with us


i know you would


be grn cious tununy


lotteis said alr


codlin who talked very slowly and eat very greedily as is not uncommon i with phlilosophers youre too free


why what harm can it do i urged the other


no alnn at all in this particular case perhaps replied mr


codlin but the pritciples a dange


rous one and youre too free


i tell you


svell are they to go with us or not


yes they are said mr codlin but you might have made a favour of it mightnt you


the real name of the little man was ilarris butl it had gradually merged into time less ecphonious one of lrotters which with the prefatory adjective short had been conferred upon him by reason of the small size of itis legs


short trotters however being a compound name inconlvenient of use in friendly dialogue the gentleman on whom it had been bestowed was known among his intimates eithel as short or trotters and was seldom accosted at full length as short trotters except in formal conversations and on occasions of ceremlony


short then or trotters as tihe render pleases returned unto the remonstrance of his friend mr tlhomlas codlin a jocose answer calculated to turn aside his discontent and applying himself with great relish to tihe cold boiled beef the tea anid bread and butter strongly impressed upon ihis com panions that they should do tle like


mir


codlin indeed required no such persuasion as he had already cat as much as ihe could possibly carry and was now moistening ihis clay iwith strong ale whereof lihe took deep draughts with a silent relish and invited nobody to partakethus again strongly indicating his mi santhropical turn of mind


breakfast being at length over mr codlin called the bill and charging the ale to tihe company gene


rally a practice also savouring of misanthrophy divided the sumtotal into two fair and equal parts assigning one moiety to hjmself and friend and the other to nelly and her grandfather


these being duly disecharged and all things ready for their de partuto they took farewell of the landlord and land


lady and resumed their journey


and here mr codlrns false position in society and thie effect it wrought upon his wounded spirit were strongly illustrated for whereas lie had been last night accosted by mr punch as master and had by inference left the audience to understand that lie maintained that individual for his own luxu rious entertainment and delight here hlie was now painfully walking beneath the burden of that same punchs temple and bearing it bodily upon his shoulders on a sultry day and along a dusty road


in place of enlivening his patron with a constant fire of wit or thie cheerful rattle of his quarterstaff on the heads of his relations and acquaintance here was that beaming punch utterly devoid of spine all slack and drooping in a cldark box with his legs doubled up round his neck and tnot one of his social qualities remaining


mr codlin trudged heavily on exchanging a word or two at intervals with short and stopping to rest and growl occasionally


short led the way with the liat box tihe private luggage which was not ex tensive tied up in a bundle and a brazen trumpet slung from hisshluldtrblade


nell and her grand father walked next hiti on either hantd and thlomas codlin brought up tile rear


when they came to any town or village or even to a detached house of good appearance short bleow a blast upon the brazen trumpet and carolled a frag


ment of a song in that hiilarious toien common to punches and their consorts


if people hurried to the windows mr codlin pitched tlte temple and hastily unfurling the drapery and concealing short therewith flourislhed hysterically on thie pipes and performed an air


thlen


the entertainmeut began as soon as might be mr codlin hiaving time responsi


bility of deciding on its length and of protracting or expediting the time for the heros final triumplh over the enemy of mankind according as lie judged that the afterclrop of halfpence would be plentiful or scant


when it had been gathered in to the last farthing ite resumed ihis load and on they went again


sometimes they played out tihe toll across a bridge or ferry and once exhibited by particular desire at a turnpike where the collector being drunk in his solitude paid down a shilling to have it to himself


tlhere was one small place of rich promise in whichl their hopes were blighted for a favourite character in tile play having goldlace upon his coatand being a meddling woodenheaded fellow was held to be a libel oil tlhe beadle for which reason the authorities enforced a quick retreat but they were generally well received and seldom left a town without a troop of ragged children shlouting at their heels


thlley made a long days journey despite these in tertulptions and were yet upon tihe road wlhen tihe moon was shining in thie sky


short beguiled the time with songs and jests and mado tile host of every thring tlhat ihaptinej i codlin on the otlher hatd cursed his fi i all the hollow things of earth but ipunch especially and limped along with tie theatre on hiis back a pray to tihe bitterest cbagrin


they had stopped to rest benteath a fingerpost where four roads met and mr codlint in ihis deep misanthlrophly hiad let down thie drapery and seated hiimself in thie bottom of tite show invisible to mior tal eyes and disdainful of thie company of his fellow creatures vlwhen two monstrous shadows were seen stalking towards themn from a turning in tihe road by whichl tltey ihadcome


tile child was at first quite terrified by tile sight of these gaunt giantsfor sucb they looked as tlhey advanced with lofty strides be


neath tie shladow of tihe treesbut slistr lolling hier that tlere was nothing to fear blew a blast upou the trumpet vwhticlh was answered by a cheerful shlout


its grinders lot ant it


cried mr shltort in a loud key


yes replied a couple of shrill voices


come on then said short


lets have a look at you


i thlought it wvas you


thus intvited grinders lot approacheld wvithl redoutbled speed and soon came up withl tihe little party


lmr


igrinderscompany familiarly termed a lot consisted of a young gentleman and a young ladtly on stilts and mlr


oriuder himself whoi used iis natural legs for pedestrian purposes and carried at itis back a drum


thio public costume of the young ipeople was of tie lhighland kind but the night being dampu and cold tite young gentleman wore over iris kilt a mans pea jacket reachling to ilsi ankles and a glaed hiat the yountg lady too was mufled in an old clothl polisse anti had a thandker chief tiedl ablout hier hieadtl


their scotchli bonnetols ornamented with pilumles of jet black feathers mlr


grinder carried on iais instrument


leound for the races i see said mr gricnder coming up out of breath


so are we


hleow are you short


with thalit they shook ihands in a very friendly ttmannter


ihe youttg tpeople being too highl up for tihe ordinary salutations sailuted short after their own fathlion


the


youig gentlemna twisted up his tight stilt and pantled hit on the shouildr and the young nlady rattlecd hler tambourine


practice said short pointing to t the stilts


noretlluned grinder


it crmes either to walkin in coll or carryin of em and they like walkin in ml best


its wary pleasant for the prospects


which road are you takin


i we go the uighest


why tile fact is said short that we were going the longest way because then we could stop for the night a iile and a half on


but three or four uile gained tonight is so many saved to mor row and if you keep on think our best way is to do the same


wheres your partner inquired grinder


lere he is cried mlr


thomas codlin pre senting his bead and face in thile proscenium of the stage and exhibiting ail expression of countenance not oftenl seen there and hell see his partner boiled alive before hell go on tonight


thats what hie says


well dont say such things as them in a spear which is dewoled to somrething pleasanter urged short


resplect associations tommy even if you do cut up rough


rough or smooth said mr codlin beat ing his hand on the little footboard whero punch whlien suddenly struck with the symmetry of his legs and their capacity for silk stockings is accustomed to exhibit tlthem to popular admliration rough or smoollh i wont go furtler than the mile and a half tonight


i put up at thile jllly sandboys and nowhere else


if you like to come there comne there


if you like to go on biy yourself go on by yourself and do witllhout me if you can


so saying ilr


codlin disappeared from the scene and immediately presented himself outside the theatre took it on ihis slhoulders at a jerk and nade off wvith most remarkable agility


any further controversy being now out of the question short was fain to part with ilir


grinder and ilis pupils and to follow hiis morose companion


after lingering at the fingerpost for a few minutes to see the stilts frisking away in the mloonlight and the bearer of the drum toiling slowly after thetm lie blew a few notes upon tle trumpet as a parting salute anid hastened with all speied to follow mlr


codlin


with this view lie gave his unoccupied band to nell and bidding her lie of good cheer as they wouhld soon lie at the cnd of their journey for that nighit and stimulating thre old man with a similar assuralice led them at a pretty swift pace towards their destination which lie was the less unwilling to mako for as the clouds were now over cast and the clouds were threatening rain


to be conltinlc


chapter viii


normans work in picadilly


norman had the good fortune tomake continued progress in the estimation of kifemployers and what was of much account he was liked and sought for in those direction


where duty took him


it soon became quite customary to see ap pended to orders for costly draperies carpets or decorations which would require the attendance of workmen the words send norman to superintend or my lord and lady calling in winpole stret to choose patterns or inspect designs generally ended their conversa tion with courtly mr newbud or deferential mr stopp with ill thank you when you execute the order to send norman both housekeeper and steward speak well of him


thus raised in his masters estimation normans services were greatly valued and his wages gradually raised to the limit assigned by mr stopp though not to that of his more conscientious and generous partner


hence it was that excellent mr newbud encouraged miss chloe in her liking for his foremans children and thus many a little gift which liddy or the others received was in part contributed by the kindly old gentleman


this good opinion norman deserved eminently conscientious sober and industrious he performed his duties with untiring zeal and aware of his own deficiencies he sought to render himself more and more competent for his respon sible situation