"Eh, mum, I'm loath, that II carry.

you.
am," said Bob, slowly depositing his
pack on the step, and beginning to
untie it with unwilling fingers. "But
what you order shall be done (much
fumbling in pauses between the sen-
tences). "It's not as you'll buy a
single thing on me. I'd be sor-
ry for you to do it for think o'
them poor women up i' the villages
there, as niver stir a hundred yards
from home. it 'ud be a pity for
anybody to buy up their bargains.
Lors, it's as good as a junketing to
'em when they see me wi' my pack

"Make no more words," said Mrs. | colored things with an air of desperaGlegg, severely, "but do as I tell tion. "I knowed it 'ud turn again' you to look at such paltry articles as Here's a piece o' figured muslin now, what's the use o' you lookin' at it? You might as well look at poor folks's victual, mum, it 'ud on'y take away your appetite. There's a yard i' the middle on't as the pattern's all missed, lors, why it's a muslin as the Princess Victoree might ha' wore, but," added Bob, flinging it behind him on to the turf, as if to save Mrs. Glegg's eyes, "it'll be bought up by the huckster's wife at Fibb's End,- that's where it'll go, ten shillin' for the whole lot, ten yards, countin' the damaged un five-an'-twenty shillin' 'ud ha' been the price, not a penny less. But I'll say no more, mum; it's nothing to you, - a piece o' muslin like that; you can afford to pay three times the money for a thing as is n't half so good. It's néts you talked on; well, I've got a piece as 'ull serve you to make fun on

an' I shall niver pick up such bargains for 'em again. Leastways, I've no time now, for I'm off to Laceham. See here, now," Bob went on, becoming rapid again, and holding up a scarlet woollen kerchief with an embroidered wreath in the corner; "here's a thing to make a lass's mouth water, an' on'y two shillin', an' why? Why, 'cause there's a bit of a moth-hole i' this plain end. Lors, I think the moths an' the mildew was sent by Providence o' purpose to cheapen the goods a bit for the good-lookin' women as han't got much money. If it had n't been for the moths, now, every hankicher on 'em 'ud ha' gone to the rich handsome ladies, like you, mum, at five shillin' apiece, not a farthin' less; but what does the moth do? Why, it nibbles off three shillin' o' the price i' no time, an' then a packman like me can carry 't to the poor lasses as live under the dark thack, to make a bit of a blaze for 'em. Lors, it's as good as a fire, to look at such a hankicher!"

Bob held it at a distance for admiration, but Mrs. Glegg said, sharply,

"Yes, but nobody wants a fire this time o' year. Put these colored things by, let me look at your nets, if you've got 'em."

Eh, mum, I told you how it 'ud be," said Bob, flinging aside the

Bring me that muslin," said Mrs. Glegg: "it's a buff, - I'm partial to buff."

Eh, but a damaged thing," said Bob, in a tone of deprecating disgust. 'You'd do nothing with it, mum, you 'd give it to the cook, I know you would, an' it 'ud be a pity, - she 'd look too much like a lady in it,it's unbecoming for servants.'

"Fetch it, and let me see you measure it," said Mrs. Glegg, authoritatively.

Bob obeyed with ostentatious reluctance.

"See what there is over the measure!" he said, holding forth the extra half-yard, while Mrs. Glegg was busy examining the damaged yard, and throwing her head back to see how far the fault would be lost on a distant view.

"I'll give you six shilling for it," she said, throwing it down with the air of a person who mentions an ultimatum.

"Didn't I tell you now, mum, as

it 'ud hurt your feelings to look at my pack? That damaged bit's turned your stomach now, I see it has," said Bob, wrapping the muslin up with the utmost quickness, and apparently about to fasten up his pack. "You 're used to seein' a different sort o' article carried by packmen, when you lived at the stone house. Packs is come down i' the world; I told you that my goods are for common folks. Mrs. Pepper 'ull give me ten shillin' for that muslin, an' be sorry as I didn't ask her more. Such articles answer i' the wearin', -- they keep their color till the threads melt away i' the wash-tub, an' that won't be while I'm a young un."

Well, seven shilling," said Mrs. Glegg.

'Well, put it me out," said Mrs. Glegg, peremptorily.

66

But if I let you have it for ten shillin', mum, you'll be so good as not tell nobody. I should be a laughin'-stock, the trade 'ud hoot me, if they knowed it. I'm obliged to make believe as I ask more nor I do for my goods, else they'd find out I was a flat. I'm glad you don't insist upo' buyin' the net, for then I should ha' lost my two best bargains for Mrs. Pepper o' Fibb's End, — an' she

"Put it out o' your mind, mum, now do," said Bob. "Here's a bit o' net, then, for you to look at before I tie up my pack: just for you to see what my trade's come to: spotted an' sprigged, you see, beautiful, but yallow,'s been lyin' by an' got the wrong color. I could niver ha''s a rare customer." bought such net, if it had n't been yallow. Lors, it's took me a deal o' study to know the vally o' such articles; when I begun to carry a pack, I was as ignirant as a pig, net or calico was all the same to me. I thought them things the most vally as was the thickest. I was took in dreadful, for I'm a straightforrard chap,-up to no tricks, mum. I can on'y say my nose is my own, for if I went beyond, I should lose myself pretty quick. An' I gey five-an'-eightpence for that piece o' net, if I was to tell y' anything else I should be tellin' you fibs and five-an'-eightpence I shall ask for it, -not a penny more, for it's a woman's article, an' I like to 'commodate the women. Fivean'-eightpence for six yards, -as cheap as if it was only the dirt on it as was paid for."

"Let me look at the net again," said Mrs. Glegg, yearning after the cheap spots and sprigs, now they were vanishing.

"I don't mind having three yards of it," said Mrs. Glegg.

"Well, I can't deny you, mum," said Bob, handing it out. "Eh! sce what a pattern now! Real Laceham goods. Now, this is the sort o' article I'm recommendin' Mr. Tom to send out. Lors, it's a fine thing for anybody as has got a bit o' money, these Laccham goods 'ud make it breed like maggits. If I was a lady wi' a bit o' money!—why, I know one as put thirty pounds into them goods, a lady wi' a cork leg; but as sharp-you would n't catch her runnin' her head into a sack; she'd see her way clear out o' anything afore she 'd be in a hurry to start. Well, she let out thirty pound to a young man in the drapering line, and he laid it out i' Laceham goods, an' a shupercargo o' my acquinetance (not Salt) took 'em out, an' she got her eight per zent fust

go off,-an' now you can't hold her but she must be sendin' out carguies wi' every ship, till she 's gettin' as rich as a Jew. Bucks her name is, she does n't live i' this town. Now, then, mum, if you'll please to give

me the net

"Here's fifteen shilling, then, for the two," said Mrs. Glegg. "But it's a shameful price."

see the

sperrit," said Mrs. Glegg, rising to get her knitting with the sense that any further remark after this would be pathos. Salt that eminently "briny chap"-having been discovered in a cloud of tobacco-smoke at the Anchor Tavern, Mr. Glegg commenced inquiries which turned out satisfactorily enough to warrant the advance of "Nay, mum, you'll niver say that the "nest-egg," to which Aunt Glegg when you're upo' your knees i'contributed twenty pounds; and in church i' five years' time. I'm mak- this modest beginning you ing you a present o' th' articles, — I | ground of a fact which might other am, indeed. That eightpence shaves wise surprise you, namely, Tom's off my profit as clean as a razor. Now accumulation of a fund, unknown to then, sir," continued Bob, shoulder- his father, that promised in no very ing his pack, "if you please, I'll be long time to meet the more tardy glad to go and see about makin' process of saving, and quite cover the Mr. Tom's fortin. Eh, I wish I'd got deficit. When once his attention another twenty pound to lay out for had been turned to this source of mysen: I shouldn't stay to say my gain, Tom determined to make the Catechism afore I knowed what to do most of it, and lost no opportunity of wi't." obtaining information and extending his small enterprises. In not telling his father, he was influenced by that strange mixture of opposite feelings which often gives equal truth to those who blame an action and those who admire it: partly, it was that disinclination to confidence which is seen between near kindred, that family repulsion which spoils the most sacred relations of our lives; partly, it was the desire to surprise his father with a great joy. He did not see that it would have been better to soothe the interval with a new hope, and prevent the delirium of a too sudden elation.

Stop a bit, Mr. Glegg," said the lady, as her husband took his hat, You never will give me the chance o' speaking. You'll go away now, and finish everything about this business, and come back and tell me it's too late for me to speak. As if I was n't my nephey's own aunt, an' th' head o' the family on his mother's side! and laid by guineas, all full weight, for him,- as he 'll know who to respect when I'm laid in my coffin."

"Well, Mrs. Glegg, say what you mean," said Mr. Glegg, hastily.

"Well, then, I desire as nothing may be done without my knowing. I don't say as I sha'n't venture twenty pounds, if you make out as everything's right and safe. And if I do, Tom," concluded Mrs. Glegg, turning impressively to her nephew, "I hope you'll allays bear it in mind and be grateful for such an aunt. I mean you to pay me interest, you know, I don't approve o' giving; we niver looked for that in my family." "Thank you, aunt," said Tom, rather proudly. "I prefer having the money only lent to me."

"Very well: that's the Dodson

At the time of Maggie's first meeting with Philip, Tom had already nearly a hundred and fifty pounds of his own capital; and while they were walking by the evening light in the Red Deeps, he, by the same evening light, was riding into Laceham, proud of being on his first journey on behalf of Guest & Co., and revolving in his mind all the chances that by the end of another year he should have doubled his gains, lifted off the obloquy of debt from his father's name and perhaps for he should