s a patch of diaculum, father. I hope you have not really hurt
yourself?'

'No, wild goose. Now, let's have the story.'

'Well, here goes. Since this time twelvemonth I have been a voyage to
Australia and back: seen Sydney and Botany Bay, and my brethren the
convicts; done a little in the mercantile way: speculated in gin and
'baccy on my own account, and helped the captain. Came home as first
mate of the 'Fair Weather,' and had enough of tailoring in the worst
voyage I ever made. We were almost wrecked more than once, and almost
starved for the last month, owing to the time the leaky old hulk took in
the voyage. When we landed in Plymouth we had a spree, as you may
suppose, and soon spent most of our money. I and a messmate were to
travel together as far as Swansea, so we just saved money enough to pay
our way, and enjoyed ourselves with the rest; but, as ill luck would
have it, we fell in with a poor Welsh woman, who had come to Plymouth in
the hope of meeting her husband, and being disappointed, and having
spent all her money, she didn't know how to get back to her home again.
Of course we couldn't leave a fellow-countrywoman in distress, so we
gave her what we had: enough to pay her journey home, and a few
shillings over. We then sold some of our clothes, and stumbling upon a
man with this old box in his arms, we bargained with him, and bought it
for twelve shillings. He wanted a pound, but we beat him down.

'Having thus a fortune in our possession we set out with our peep-show,
and thought of getting interest for our money. We have been about three
weeks journeying from place to place; and I assure you we have seen a
good deal of life. We unfortunately spent the interest of our fortune as
it came in; but, as you will perceive, I have brought the whole capital
home with me. When we entered a town on a fair or market-day, we made a
great deal of money, but then the temptations to spend were all the
greater. I used to have all the labour of the imagination, for my friend
Jack Jenkins had not the gift of eloquence; so we agreed that I should
be showman, and he porter--a division of work that we thought quite
fair. When we arrived at Swansea I gave him all the money we had in
hand, and he resigned the peep-show to me, and so we parted company; he
to go to his friends in Glamorganshire, I to come on here.

'I had a rare lark on my way home. I went to uncle's, and finding aunt
in the garden, slouched my hat over my fa