n with the
theatre.

When he reached his hospitable landlord and family, he found that they
had all been in great consternation at his absence. He had that morning
spoken to his friend John the ostler, about selling his silver buckles,
in order to pay his bill, and the generous souls were all afraid that he
was in distress. "Hast thee eat nothing since breakfast," said the good
man; "Lauk! why thee must be famished--what bewitched thee to stay away
from thy meals, child," cried the wife, "tis very bad for a young thing
like thee to fast," said another: and numberless other kind and tender
expostulations were uttered by the good people one and all, while ostler
John who was more frightened about him than any of them, and could not
get the naughty players out of his head, coming in said with
affectionate surliness, "Soh! thee'st come back, be thee?--Ecod thee
deservst to ha thee jacket trimmed, so thee dost--a young tuoad like
thee to stay out, God knows where, to this time o' night?" "Dont be
angry John," replied our adventurer, "dont be angry--and as to trimming,
John, it is not in thy jacket, to trim my jacket John--so go to your
hayloft and dont make a fool of thyself!" In saying this he mimicked
John's clownish lingo so nearly that the family burst out laughing, and
John went off, growling out that he believed the devil or his imps the
player fellers had got possession of the boy.

"John is thy friend," said the landlord, "he was quite down o' the mouth
about thee." "And I love and thank John," said Hodgkinson, "but I could
not help making fun of him for his talking of beating me. I accidentally
met with a friend who offered to bring me to the play, and I was so glad
I never thought of dinner." "Well come now," then said the good man,
"pay away upon that beef--lay in dinner and supper at once, my boy, and
thee shall have a cann of as good _yeal_ as any in Somersetshire, and
moreover than all that it shall cost thee nothing but the trouble of
drinking it--so here's to thee, my boy." The worthy man drank, and his
wife drank, and son and daughter, and all drank, and H. told them all
about the play, and sung, "Make haste and away my only dear," for them,
to their great delight. He was then too innocent and too young to direct
it to the young lady of the house, or it is more than probable that she
would have been more delighted with it, than any of them.

The next morning early he waited on Mr. ----,[B] the prompter, wh