by finding a spot under an ash tree which, from its burnt and
blackened appearance, seemed to have been frequently used as a fireplace.
I will take up my quarters here, thought I; it is an excellent spot for
me to commence my new profession in; I was quite right to trust myself to
the guidance of the pony. Unharnessing the animal without delay, I
permitted him to browse at free will on the grass, convinced that he
would not wander far from a place to which he was so much attached; I
then pitched the little tent close beside the ash tree to which I have
alluded, and conveyed two or three articles into it, and instantly felt
that I had commenced housekeeping for the first time in my life.
Housekeeping, however, without a fire is a very sorry affair, something
like the housekeeping of children in their toy houses; of this I was the
more sensible from feeling very cold and shivering, owing to my late
exposure to the rain, and sleeping in the night air. Collecting,
therefore, all the dry sticks and furze I could find, I placed them upon
the fireplace, adding certain chips and a billet which I found in the
cart, it having apparently been the habit of Slingsby to carry with him a
small store of fuel. Having then struck a spark in a tinder-box and
lighted a match, I set fire to the combustible heap, and was not slow in
raising a cheerful blaze; I then drew my cart near the fire, and, seating
myself on one of the shafts, hung over the warmth with feelings of
intense pleasure and satisfaction. Having continued in this posture for
a considerable time, I turned my eyes to the heaven in the direction of a
particular star; I, however, could not find the star, nor indeed many of
the starry train, the greater number having fled, from which
circumstance, and from the appearance of the sky, I concluded that
morning was nigh. About this time I again began to feel drowsy; I
therefore arose, and having prepared for myself a kind of couch in the
tent, I flung myself upon it and went to sleep.

I will not say that I was awakened in the morning by the carolling of
birds, as I perhaps might if I were writing a novel; I awoke because, to
use vulgar language, I had slept my sleep out, not because the birds were
carolling around me in numbers, as they had probably been for hours
without my hearing them. I got up and left my tent; the morning was yet
more bright than that of the preceding day. Impelled by curiosity, I
walked about endeavouri