s care. But
sometimes they paused, for food and rest, at the obscure hostel of some
scattered hamlet: though, more often, they loved to spread the simple
food they purchased by the way under some thick, tree, or beside a
stream through whose limpid waters they could watch the trout glide and
play. And they often preferred the chance shelter of a haystack, or a
shed, to the less romantic repose offered by the small inns they alone
dared to enter. They went in this much by the face and voice of the host
or hostess. Once only Philip had entered a town, on the second day of
their flight, and that solely for the purchase of ruder clothes, and
a change of linen for Sidney, with some articles and implements of use
necessary in their present course of shift and welcome hardship. A wise
precaution; for, thus clad, they escaped suspicion.

So journeying, they consumed several days; and, having taken a direction
quite opposite to that which led to the manufacturing districts, whither
pursuit had been directed, they were now in the centre of another
county--in the neighbourhood of one of the most considerable towns of
England; and here Philip began to think their wanderings ought to
cease, and it was time to settle on some definite course of life. He
had carefully hoarded about his person, and most thriftily managed,
the little fortune bequeathed by his mother. But Philip looked on this
capital as a deposit sacred to Sidney; it was not to be spent, but kept
and augmented--the nucleus for future wealth. Within the last few weeks
his character was greatly ripened, and his powers of thought enlarged.
He was no more a boy,--he was a man: he had another life to take care
of. He resolved, then, to enter the town they were approaching, and to
seek for some situation by which he might maintain both. Sidney was very
loath to abandon their present roving life; but he allowed that the warm
weather could not always last, and that in winter the fields would be
less pleasant. He, therefore, with a sigh, yielded to his brother's
reasonings.

They entered the fair and busy town of one day at noon; and, after
finding a small lodging, at which he deposited Sidney, who was fatigued
with their day's walk, Philip sallied forth alone.

After his long rambling, Philip was pleased and struck with the broad
bustling streets, the gay shops--the evidences of opulence and trade. He
thought it hard if he could not find there a market for the health and
hear