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CHAPTER III.

O no! for I would rather roam

In the humble walks of my cottage home,
I would not but hear my mother's voice!
I would not but bid her heart rejoice!
For all the mines of wealth that sleep
In the bottomless caves of the ocean deep.

G. F. RICHARDSON.

HENRY, in the mean time, arriving safe in London, proceeded immediately to join Mrs. Tenby, his step-mother, who being of a most parsimonious disposition, had, taken mean lodgings in an obscure street leading out of Holborn, where the rapacity of the landlady, and the dishonesty of her servants, soon put her to a much greater expense than if she had engaged handsome apartments in a more respectable quarter of the town. This miscalculating thrift had often placed her in a similar predicament, but she had not the heart to amend it in any other way than by a jealous and incessant vigilance over the paltry details of housekeeping, which involved her in perpetual squabbles with all parties. Although Mrs. Tenby had now lost some portion of the personal comeliness which had won the heart of her late husband, she retained her full share of that provincial, not to say illiterate vulgarity which Henry had in vain endeavoured to correct, and which marked her at once for an uneducated Virginian. This defect was rendered still more conspicuous by a drawling nasal intonation, a pretty free use of the most homely American colloquialisms, and the singing sound imparted to her ordinary discourse by her invariably leaving off with a high note, instead of the customary low one of the English.

We have stated elsewhere, that notwithstanding her for mer cruelty to Henry, she had latterly, but more especially since he had so easily resigned bis fortune in her favour, entertained for him a sort of compassionate attachment, considering him, to use her own phraseology, as "little better than a naitral gump in all worldly concerns, and no more

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able to fight his own battles, than a cub in a bear-trap, or a squirrel in a rackoon's nest." On his own account, therefore, she was not sorry to see him back in London; but more especially was she delighted, for her head and heart had been ciphering during the whole of his narrative, when he stated the hospitable reception he had experienced from Mark Penguin, the genteel style in which that personage lived, his independent circumstances, and the friendly invitation he had given them to become inmates of Grotto-house, until they could determine their plans, and find a fitting residence for themselves.

What!" she exclaimed, with an animated look, little in accordance with her drawling mode of speaking, “He didn't invite us for a week, or a fortnight, or a month, then, but asked us to turn in now, and not turn out till we are tired?" "Not till we had suited ourselves with a house, if we dctermined on settling in the neighbourhood," said Henry.

"Butternuts and codfish! that's prime-that's the prettiest bit of news, I reckon, I have picked up since I came to the Old Country. Why, the old badger's a warm one, I warrant, and lives like a pretty considerable somebody, or I'd lose a guess! Well, Henry, the best roof to be under is that which covers another man's house; and when once I seat myself down beneath his, I shan't turn out in a hurry; tell me on't, if I do! Sure none but a gawk will pay away hard dollars for rent, when he may live for nothing, like a squatter in a log-hut. What's the vally of his property, d'ye reckon? How many acres, and how many dollars do they fetch him in?-Got no children, say?-Joes to coppers he'll have none, for his brother, my first husband that was, never had any. Ah! I shall love him mighty bad, I rather guess. Well, as I'm alive, I long to be jogging, for I'm robbed and cheated here, up-stairs and down-stairs, from Passamaquoddy to the Mississippi, as we say in Virginnyfrom Currituck Sound to the Laurel Mountain, as they talk in Caroliny."

"The greater Mr. Penguin's kindness," said Henry, "the more ungenerous would it be in us to take advantage of it. An invitation does not imply domiciliation: but this was an invitation; we shall not be justified, therefore, in making a lengthened stay. A visit is not a permanent residence."

"There you go! chopping logic, as if you were cutting

pitch knots for candles, and always taking the side that makes against yourself, or else 'twouldn't be you. Why, boy, the old one has no doubt got a power of dumps, and I'm sure you have little enough, so keep what you have, and live scot-free while you may; for gold makes gold,' as poor Richard says, and the more pence you can save, the more pounds you will have.'"

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"You will oblige me very much, now that we are come to England," said Henry, "if you would drop poor Richard's sordid maxims, and speak the language of the country, instead of this Yankee dialect."

"Rattlesnakes and ringums! that's a good one! I speak real old ginooine Virginny, and that's better, I guess, than all the new-fangled rubbish that we shall hear in these parts. Railly, you progress at a strange rate. Sordid maxims, forsooth! it would be better for you, if you would profit by them, instead of trampoosing about the country, as you did in America, attending to every body's concerns but your own; going out wool-gathering, and coming home shorn. There! that's into you, I reckon! And pray, boy, when do you mean to set about some business or other for yourself; for 'twould puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer to tell how you mean to live on a hundred a-year? Snecks! I wish you would recollect for once what poor Richard says, 'no gains without pains; then help hands, for I have no lands,' Didn't I tell you over and over, when we were in the new settlement at Johnson's Town, that if you went on spouting and planning, and attending committees for the good of others, you would never do any good for yourself? Didn't I remind you, that if you would plough deep while sluggards sleep, you would have corn to sell and to keep?

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“You have never been remiss, I must confess, in incul

cating any of poor Richard's morality, such as it is, and yet I do not feel disposed to become his convert. I despise the selfish and debasing struggle for wealth that is instilled into us, as the primary lesson, and the most important law of life. Be satisfied, madam, with knowing, that while I am occupied, as I hope I shall constantly be, to the best of my ability for the benefit of others, I cannot be idle; and that while I am content with what I have, I cannot be poor."

"Only hear him! Why, this beats all natur! to think that a young man like you, spry and ac-tive, with a power of legs and arms, soople as a young catamountain, should think o

doing nothing but stray-va-ging about all day like a great fat, lazy opossum. As I'm alive, one would think you had got Injun blood in ye. Pretty considerable tejus you'll find such a life, or I'd lose a guess. Rich enough with a sneaking hundred a-year! But a quair notion, I reckon, for any one's that's not on the cracky order. Why, then, if you never mean to add more to it, you should take the greater care of what you have, and husband the few hundreds that was saved for you during your minority; and take care of the pence, for a small leak will sink a great ship; and always taking out of the meal-tub, and never putting in, soon comes to the bottom,' as poor Richard says."

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"Have you any particular reason for harping on poor Richard at the present moment, or may I consider it as only a rehearsal of your established lectures?"

"Why, then, boy, I have a particular reason, and a pretty considerable handsome one, I conceit. Guess you're in some danger of having the dollars in your pocket knocked down, faster 'n sixteen more'll pick 'em up again. So look out, and stay to house, while we remain in London, or else you'll buy the rabbit, that's all.”

"To become intelligible you should avoid enigmas; but you speak in nothing else, therefore you are not intelligible." "So! you have got to your syllygisms again, have you? Snecks! you give 'em a terrible good name, for they are mighty silly, sure enough. Guess you'll understand me presently. Recollect young Enoch Clayton? him that came from Kentucky, or somewhere that way, right down east. Isha'nt forget in a hurry how he used to drop in of a morning, when we were living in the back country, and never went away without a swig of warm cider, some roasted apples, hastypudding and molasses, pumpkin-pie and sweet sarse, or whatever was going, and generally put his hand into the hickorynut bag before he showed us his back."

"I have little recollection of all this, but I shall never forget his jumping into the lake after me when I fell overboard." "The greater gawk he! for you can swim like a cork, and was never in any more danger than an eel in a trout stream."

"Which, however, he did not know when he so generously risked his own life to save mine. But what of my friend

Enoch Clayton ?"

"Why, that he has been such a gawkey, such a naitral, as

to go security here in England for a Caroliny man, a Swapper, that he knew down east, who has left him in the lurch, and so master Enoch has found his way into the Fleet Prison, that's all. Met his sister, who told me a tarnal long story all about it, and cried a few, I reckon, before she had done it. I told her you were up country, and wouldn't come back to London; but if she finds you're here, joes to coppers, she'll beat up your quarters, and have a pull at your dollars to get brother Enoch out of limbo."

"I shall save her the trouble of finding me out, for I shall immediately go to visit my friend, whose misfortune I am truly sorry to learn."

The old one! "Tatoes and codfish! you're joking, surely."

"I never joke, nor if I did would this be an occasion for it."

"Torment us all! who ever heard the like of this? Guess you're mad. Why, boy, he'll pepper your dish for you finely, won't leave you a joe in your purse. Henry, I will never forgive you, if you go nigh him."

"I should be sorry for that, madam, nor can I believe that you would be so unjust; but as I should never forgive myself, were I to desert my friend in his hour of need, I shall instantly proceed to the prison in which he is confined."

"Welf, but Henry, boy, don't do any thing rashly, listen to me, sit down a bit; now don't be on the huffy order, and don't put yourself in a passion."

"I am very seldom in a passion, I wish I could say never."

"I want to consult you on a pretty considerable matter, so leave me be, don't interrupt me, and keep coolish a few. Why should we stay to throw away our dollars in London, when I could pack up my duds and be off to-morrow; and I dare say brother Penguin will be offended, if we're tejus in showing ourselves up to Grotto-house. Snecks! why should we idle away more time, 'since the used key is always bright,' as poor Richard says, and the sleeping fox catches no poultry, and one to-day is worth two to-morrow.' Guess I sha'nt be sorry to get from this house slick right away, for the servants are little better than downright Mohawks; never learned their catechise, I reckon, for they can't keep their hands from picking and stealing. One of 'em, like that Injun-looking gal I took from Mr. Briga

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