d every place where concealment is possible--of course,
although the Doctor forgets to suggest it, into the chimney. A friend of
the Doctor's used to place a bureau against the door, and "thereon he
set a basin and ewer in such a position as easily to rattle, so that, on
being shook, they instantly became _molto agitato_." Upon one alarming
occasion this device frightened away one of the chambermaids, or some
other Paulina Pry, who attempted to steal on the virgin sleep of the
travelling Joseph, who all the time was hiding his head beneath the
bolster. Joseph, however, believed that it was a horrible midnight
assassin, with mustaches and a dagger. "The chattering of the crockery
gave the alarm, and the attempt, after many attempts, was abandoned."

With all these fearful apprehensions--in his mind, Dr Kitchiner must
have been a man of great natural personal courage and intrepidity, to
have slept even once in his whole lifetime from home. What dangers must
we have passed, who used to plump in, without a thought of damp in the
bed, or scamp below it--closet and chimney uninspected, door unbolted
and unscrewed, exposed to rape, robbery, and murder! It is mortifying to
think that we should be alive at this day. Nobody, male or female,
thought it worth their while to rob, ravish, or murder us! There we lay,
forgotten by the whole world--till the crowing of cocks, or the ringing
of bells, or blundering Boots insisting on it that we were a Manchester
Bagman, who had taken an inside in the Heavy at five, broke our repose,
and Sol laughing in at the unshuttered and uncurtained window showed us
the floor of our dormitory, not streaming with a gore of blood. We
really know not whether to be most proud of having been the favourite
child of Fortune, or the neglected brat of Fate. One only precaution did
we ever use to take against assassination, and all the other ills that
flesh is heir to, sleep where one may, and that was to say inwardly a
short fervent prayer, humbly thanking our Maker for all the
happiness--let us trust it was innocent--of the day; and humbly
imploring his blessing on all the hopes of to-morrow. For, at the time
we speak of, we were young--and every morning, whatever the atmosphere
might be, rose bright and beautiful with hopes that, far as the eyes of
the soul could reach, glittered on earth's, and heaven's, and life's
horizon!

But suppose that after all this trouble to get himself bolted and
screwed into a p