ed by such ingenious twists of path that it took quite a long
time to get at; and in this retreat our glasses were already set forth.
Our punch was cooling in an ornamental lake, on whose margin the bower
was raised. This piece of water (with an island in the middle which
might have been the salad for supper) was of a circular form, and he had
constructed a fountain in it, which, when you set a little mill going
and took a cork out of a pipe, played to that powerful extent that it
made the back of your hand quite wet.

"I am my own engineer, and my own carpenter, and my own plumber, and
my own gardener, and my own Jack of all Trades," said Wemmick, in
acknowledging my compliments. "Well; it's a good thing, you know. It
brushes the Newgate cobwebs away, and pleases the Aged. You wouldn't
mind being at once introduced to the Aged, would you? It wouldn't put
you out?"

I expressed the readiness I felt, and we went into the castle. There
we found, sitting by a fire, a very old man in a flannel coat: clean,
cheerful, comfortable, and well cared for, but intensely deaf.

"Well aged parent," said Wemmick, shaking hands with him in a cordial
and jocose way, "how am you?"

"All right, John; all right!" replied the old man.

"Here's Mr. Pip, aged parent," said Wemmick, "and I wish you could hear
his name. Nod away at him, Mr. Pip; that's what he likes. Nod away at
him, if you please, like winking!"

"This is a fine place of my son's, sir," cried the old man, while I
nodded as hard as I possibly could. "This is a pretty pleasure-ground,
sir. This spot and these beautiful works upon it ought to be kept
together by the Nation, after my son's time, for the people's
enjoyment."

"You're as proud of it as Punch; ain't you, Aged?" said Wemmick,
contemplating the old man, with his hard face really softened; "there's
a nod for you;" giving him a tremendous one; "there's another for you;"
giving him a still more tremendous one; "you like that, don't you? If
you're not tired, Mr. Pip--though I know it's tiring to strangers--will
you tip him one more? You can't think how it pleases him."

I tipped him several more, and he was in great spirits. We left him
bestirring himself to feed the fowls, and we sat down to our punch in
the arbor; where Wemmick told me, as he smoked a pipe, that it had taken
him a good many years to bring the property up to its present pitch of
perfection.

"Is it your own, Mr. Wemmick?"

"O yes," said Wemmi