he
money so earned to that purpose. You asked me which is my room. You
remember the bathroom, next to what was my uncle John's bedroom, on
the third floor; the room above that my mother has fitted up
beautifully for me, and I inhabit it all day long with great
complacency and a sort of comfortable, Alexander-Selkirk feeling.
And this suggests a question which has seldom been out of my mind,
and which I wish to recall to yours. When do you intend to come and
see me? I can offer you a nest on the _fourth story_, which is
excellent for your health, as free a circulation of air as a London
lodging can well afford, and as fine a combination of chimney-pots
as even your love of the picturesque could desire.

Dear H----, will you not come and pass a month with us? Now stop a
bit, and I will point out to you one by one the inducements to and
advantages of such a step. In the first place, my father and mother
both request and wish it, and you know how truly happy it would
make me. Your own people can well spare you for a month, and I am
sure will be the more inclined to do so from the consideration that
change of air and scene will be good for you, and that, though your
stock of original ideas is certainly extraordinary, yet you cannot
be expected to go on for ever, like a spider, existing mentally in
the midst of your own weavings, without every now and then
recruiting your strength and taking in a new supply of material.

You shall come to London, that huge mass of matter for thought and
observation, and to me, in whom you find so interesting an epitome
of all the moods, tenses, and conjugations of every regular and
irregular form of "to do, to be, and to suffer;" and when you have
been sufficiently _smoked, fogged_, astonished, and edified, you
shall return home with one infallible result of your stay with
us--increased value for a peaceful life, quiet companions, a wide
sea-view, and potatoes roasted in their skins; not but what you
shall have the last-mentioned luxury here, if you will but come.

Now, dear H----, I wish this very much, but promise to bear your
answer reasonably well; I depend upon your indulging me if you can,
and shall try not to behave ill if you don't; so do me justice, and
do not give way to your shyness and habits of retirement.