that it was of no use bothering them with
an account of his brother Sam's early life.

"Not unless there's somethin' partikler about it," said Bolter.

"Well, there ain't nothin' very partikler about it, 'xcept that Sam was
partiklerly noisy as a baby, and wild as a boy, besides bein' uncommon
partikler about his wittles, 'specially in the matter o' havin' plenty
of 'em. Moreover, he ran away to sea when he was twelve years old, an'
was partiklerly quiet after that for a long time, for nobody know'd
where he'd gone to, till one fine mornin' my mother she gets a letter
from him sayin' he was in China, drivin' a great trade in the opium
line. We niver felt quite sure about that, for Sam wornt over partikler
about truth. He was a kindly sort o' feller, hows'ever, an' continued
to write once or twice a year for a long time. In these letters he said
that his life was pretty wariable, as no doubt it was, for he wrote from
all parts o' the world. First, he was clerk, he said, to the British
counsel in Penang, or some sich name, though where that is I don't know;
then he told us he'd joined a man-o'-war, an' took to clearin' the
pirates out o' the China seas. He found it a tough job appariently, an'
got wounded in the head with a grape-shot, and half choked by a
stink-pot, after which we heard no more of him for a long time, when a
letter turns up from Californy, sayin' he was there shippin' hides on
the coast; and after that he went through Texas an' the States, where he
got married, though he hadn't nothin' wotever, as I knows of, to keep a
wife upon--"

"But he may have had somethin' for all you didn't know it," suggested
Bill Bowls.

"Well, p'r'aps he had. Hows'ever, the next we heard was that he'd gone
to Canada, an' tuk a small farm there, which was all well enough, but
now we've got a letter from him sayin' that he's in trouble, an' don't
see his way out of it very clear. He's got the farm, a wife, an' a
sarvant to support, an' nothin' to do it with. Moreover, the sarvant is
a boy what a gentleman took from a Reformation-house, or somethin' o'
that sort, where they put little thieves, as has only bin in quod for
the fust time. They say that many of 'em is saved, and turns out well,
but this feller don't seem to have bin a crack specimen, for Sam's
remarks about him ain't complimentary. Here's the letter, mates,"
continued Riggles, drawing a soiled epistle from his pocket; "it'll give
'e a better notion tha