at same evening the cottage in the gill was well snowed up, as
befell it every winter, more or less handsomely, according to the wind.
The wind was in the right way to do it truly now, with just enough
draught to pile bountiful wreaths, and not enough of wild blast to
scatter them again. "Bat of the Gill," as Mr. Bert was called, sat by
the fire, with his wife and daughter, and listened very calmly to the
whistle of the wind, and the sliding of the soft fall that blocked his
window-panes.

Insie was reading, Mrs. Bert was knitting stockings, and Mr. Bert was
thinking of his own strange life. It never once occurred to him that
great part of its strangeness sprang from the oddities of his own
nature, any more than a man who has been in a quarrel believes that he
could have kept out of it. "Matters beyond my own control have forced me
to do this and that," is the sure belief of every man whose life has run
counter to his fellows, through his own inborn diversity. In this man's
nature were two strange points, sure (if they are strong enough to
survive experience) to drive anybody into strange ways: he did not care
for money, and he contemned rank.

How these two horrible twists got into his early composition is more
than can be told, and in truth it does not matter. But being quite
incurable, and meeting with no sympathy, except among people who aspired
to them only, and failed--if they ever got the chance of failing--these
depravations from the standard of mankind drove Christopher Bert from
the beaten tracks of life. Providence offered him several occasions of
return into the ordinary course; for after he had cast abroad a very
nice inheritance, other two fortunes fell to him, but found him as
difficult as ever to stay with. Not that he was lavish upon luxury
of his own, for no man could have simpler tastes, but that he weakly
believed in the duty of benevolence, and the charms of gratitude. Of the
latter it is needless to say that he got none, while with the former he
produced some harm. When all his bread was cast upon the waters, he set
out to earn his own crust as best he might.

Hence came a chapter of accidents, and a volume of motley incidents in
various climes, and upon far seas. Being a very strong, active man,
with gift of versatile hand and brain, and early acquaintance with
handicrafts, Christopher Bert could earn his keep, and make in a year
almost as much as he used to give away, or lend without redemption