ctability about me;' and, thrusting his hand into
his bosom below his waistcoat, he drew out a large bundle of notes.
'These are the kind of things,' said he, 'which vouch best for a man's
respectability.' 'Not always,' said I; 'indeed, sometimes these kind of
things need vouchers for themselves.' The man looked at me with a
peculiar look. 'Do you mean to say that these notes are not sufficient
notes?' said he, 'because if you do I shall take the liberty of thinking
that you are not over civil, and when I thinks a person is not over and
above civil I sometimes takes off my coat; and when my coat is off--.'
'You sometimes knock people down,' I added; 'well, whether you knock me
down or not, I beg leave to tell you that I am a stranger in this fair,
and that I shall part with the horse to nobody who has no better
guarantee for his respectability than a roll of bank-notes, which may be
good or not for what I know, who am not a judge of such things.' 'Oh! if
you are a stranger here,' said the man, 'as I believe you are, never
having seen you here before except last night, when I think I saw you
above stairs by the glimmer of a candle--I say, if you are a stranger,
you are quite right to be cautious; queer things being done in this fair,
as nobody knows better than myself,' he added, with a leer; 'but I
suppose if the landlord of the house vouches for me and my notes, you
will have no objection to part with the horse to me?' 'None whatever,'
said I, 'and in the meantime the horse can return to the stable.'

Thereupon I delivered the horse to my friend the ostler. The landlord of
the house, on being questioned by me as to the character and condition of
my new acquaintance, informed me that he was a respectable horsedealer,
and an intimate friend of his, whereupon the purchase was soon brought to
a satisfactory conclusion.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

HIGH DUTCH

It was evening: and myself and the two acquaintances I had made in the
fair--namely, the jockey and the tall foreigner--sat in a large upstairs
room, which looked into a court; we had dined with several people
connected with the fair at a long table d'hote; they had now departed,
and we sat at a small side-table with wine and a candle before us; both
my companions had pipes in their mouths--the jockey a common pipe, and
the foreigner, one, the syphon of which made of some kind of wood, was at
least six feet long, and the bowl of which, made of a white kind of
s