el.

"Yes, I got here very late. I had the misfortune to sprain my ankle, and
this detained me a long time on the way, and may keep me for a couple of
days more."

I learned where he was stopping in the town, and seeing with what pain
and difficulty he moved, I offered him my aid to assist him on his way.

"Well, I 'll not refuse your help," said he, dryly; "but Just go along
yonder, about five-and-twenty or thirty yards, and I'll join you. You
understand me, I suppose?"

Now, I really did not understand him, except to believe him perfectly
insane, and suggest to me the notion of profiting by his lameness to
make my escape with all speed. I conclude some generous promptings
opposed this course, for I obeyed his injunctions to the very letter,
and waited till he came up to me. He did so very slowly, and evidently
in much suffering, assisted by a stick in one hand, while he carried his
two little boats in the other.

"Shall I take charge of these for you?" said I, offering to carry them.

"No, don't trouble yourself," said he in the same rude tone. "Nobody
touches these but myself."

I now gave him my arm, and we moved slowly along.

"What has become of the vagabonds? Are they here with you?" asked he,
abruptly.

"I parted with them yesterday," said I, shortly, and not wishing to
enter into further explanations.

"And you did wisely," rejoined he, with a serious air. "Even when
these sort of creatures have nothing very bad about them, they are bad
company, out of the haphazard chance way they gain a livelihood. If you
reduce life to a game, you must yourself become a gambler. Now, there's
one feature of that sort of existence intolerable to an honest man; it
is, that to win himself, some one else must lose. Do you understand me?"

"I do, and am much struck by what you say."

"In that case," said he, with a nudge of his elbow against my side,--"in
that case you might as well have not come down to watch _me?_--eh?"

I protested stoutly against this mistake, but I could plainly perceive
with very little success.

"Let it be, let it be," said he, with a shake of the head. "As I said
before, if you saw the thing done before your eyes you 'd make nothing
of it. I 'm not afraid of you, or all the men in Europe! There now,
there's a challenge to the whole of ye! Sit down every man of ye, with
the problem before ye, and see what you 'll make of it."

"Ah," thought I, "this is madness. Here is a poor monomaniac le