ht. The next morning I set out again in the direction of the
north-west. I continued journeying for four days, my daily journeys
varying from twenty to twenty-five miles. During this time nothing
occurred to me worthy of any especial notice. The weather was brilliant,
and I rapidly improved both in strength and spirits. On the fifth day,
about two o'clock, I arrived at a small town. Feeling hungry, I entered
a decent-looking inn. Within a kind of bar I saw a huge, fat, landlord-
looking person, with a very pretty, smartly-dressed maiden. Addressing
myself to the fat man, "House!" said I, "house! Can I have dinner,
house?"

CHAPTER LXIII.

"Young gentleman," said the huge, fat landlord, "you are come at the
right time; dinner will be taken up in a few minutes, and such a dinner,"
he continued, rubbing his hands, "as you will not see every day in these
times."

"I am hot and dusty," said I, "and should wish to cool my hands and
face."

"Jenny!" said the huge landlord, with the utmost gravity, "show the
gentleman into number seven that he may wash his hands and face."

"By no means," said I, "I am a person of primitive habits, and there is
nothing like the pump in weather like this."

"Jenny!" said the landlord, with the same gravity as before, "go with the
young gentleman to the pump in the back kitchen, and take a clean towel
along with you."

Thereupon the rosy-faced clean-looking damsel went to a drawer, and
producing a large, thick, but snowy-white towel, she nodded to me to
follow her; whereupon I followed Jenny through a long passage into the
back kitchen.

And at the end of the back kitchen there stood a pump; and going to it I
placed my hands beneath the spout, and said, "Pump, Jenny," and Jenny
incontinently, without laying down the towel, pumped with one hand, and I
washed and cooled my heated hands.

And, when my hands were washed and cooled, I took off my neckcloth, and
unbuttoning my shirt collar, I placed my head beneath the spout of the
pump, and I said unto Jenny: "Now, Jenny, lay down the towel, and pump
for your life".

Thereupon Jenny, placing the towel on a linen-horse, took the handle of
the pump with both hands and pumped over my head as handmaid had never
pumped before; so that the water poured in torrents from my head, my
face, and my hair down upon the brick floor.

And after the lapse of somewhat more than a minute, I called out with a
half-strangled voice, "Hold, Je