an passed
me. "I wish you would get this horse under weigh," said I, "for here have
I been at single anchor for these five minutes at this door, and cannot
cast him the right way." "Why," said he, "I knows that there horse; it be
the baker's." "D----n the baker, and his horse too," said I, not much
pleased at his remark. "You are close to the Canterbury road, and mayhap
if I leads him he may go on." "You are the best fellow I have met for a
quarter of an hour. Do get him into open cruising ground as fast as you
can, for I have been on his back more than an hour, and have not gained
half a mile." He gave me a broad grin, and good-naturedly led the horse
until I got clear of the houses. He then let go the bridle, gave the
animal a smart slap on the flank, which set him off at a hand-gallop, and
nearly jerked me over the taffrail. I kept him to his speed, and in about
half an hour he stopped suddenly near a small farmhouse, and I was again
nearly going over his bows. A slovenly kind of woman hove in sight. I
hailed her, and asked her to bring me a tumbler of milk, but I might as
well have spoken to a Porto Rico donkey. She showed me her stern, and
brought up in a piggery. "The devil take your hospitality," said I. The
weather was exceedingly warm, and I was very thirsty, which made me more
hasty in my expressions to the Dulciana of the pigstye than I ought to
have been. But show me the fair one who would not excuse a sailor thirsty
and on the back of an animal as obstinate as a boat's crew when cutting
out. After a fruitless attempt to proceed further on my voyage of
discovery, I hove about. The animal answered stays as well as any frigate,
and was round sooner than the captain of the forecastle could clap the jib
traveller over the end of the jib-boom. I was heartily tired of my horse
cruise, and was glad when I hove to at the "Hoop and Griffin."

As soon as I had thrown myself on the sofa, my beautiful maid entered.
"Will you favour me with your name?" said I, addressing her with
quarter-deck modesty. "I am called Lucy," said she. "That's a very pretty
name," returned I. "Pray, Miss Lucy, may I ask where the horse came from I
have been riding? I have had a worse cruise than a dismantled Dutch dogger
on the Goodwin Sands. I have, into the bargain, lost out of my
waistcoat-pocket two two-pound notes and five new gloves out of six which
I very stupidly stuffed into my coat-pocket." "I am very sorry, sir,
indeed, for your mis