phur for fumigation.

His eatables would not have been complete without cheese; and he
therefore ordered about six hundredweight from Derbyshire, Wiltshire,
and Leicestershire, besides a couple of large old cheeses from
Rostherne, in Cheshire--even then noted for the best dairies in the
whole county. Several tubs of salted butter were sent him out of
Berkshire, and a few pots, from Suffolk.

It being indispensable, considering the long period he meant to close
his house, to provide himself and his family with every necessary, he
procured a sufficient stock of wearing apparel, hose, shoes and boots.
Spice, dried fruit, and other grocery articles, were not required,
because he already possessed them. Candles also formed an article of his
trade, and lamp-oil; but he was recommended by Doctor Hodges, from a
fear of the scurvy, to provide a plentiful supply of lemon and lime
juice.

To guard against accident, he also doubly stocked his house with glass,
earthenware, and every article liable to breakage. He destroyed all
vermin, such as rats and mice, by which the house was infested; and the
only live creatures he would suffer to be kept were a few poultry. He
had a small hutch constructed near the street-door, to be used by the
watchman he meant to employ; and he had the garrets fitted up with beds
to form an hospital, if any part of the family should be seized with the
distemper, so that the sick might be sequestered from the sound.

* * * * *

III.

THE QUACK DOCTORS.

Patience, it may be remembered, had promised Blaize to give him her
earnings to enable him to procure a fresh supply of medicine, and about
a week after he had received the trifling amount (for he had been so
constantly employed by the grocer that he had no opportunity of getting
out before), he sallied forth to visit a neighbouring apothecary, named
Parkhurst, from whom he had been in the habit of purchasing drugs, and
who occupied a small shop not far from the grocer's, on the opposite
side of the street. Parkhurst appeared overjoyed to see him, and,
without giving him time to prefer his own request, inquired after his
master's family--whether they were all well, especially fair Mistress
Amabel--and, further, what was the meaning of the large supplies of
provision which he saw daily conveyed to the premises? Blaize shook his
head at the latter question, and for some time refused to answer it. But
being closely pres