questions. At length we arrived at a part of the shore with
which I was utterly unacquainted, when I alighted and began to
return in the best fashion I could my thanks for the important
service which he had just rendered me.

The stranger only replied by an impatient 'pshaw!' and was about
to ride off, and leave me to my own resources when I implored him
to complete his work of kindness by directing me to Shepherd's
Bush, which was, as I informed him, my home for the present.

'To Shepherd's Bush?' he said; 'it is but three miles but if you
know not the land better than the sand, you may break your neck
before you get there; for it is no road for a moping boy in a
dark night; and, besides, there are the brook and the fens to
cross.'

I was a little dismayed at this communication of such
difficulties as my habits had not called on me to contend with.
Once more the idea of thy father's fireside came across me; and I
could have been well contented to have swapped the romance of my
situation, together with the glorious independence of control
which I possessed at the moment, for the comforts of that
chimney-corner, though I were obliged to keep my eyes chained to
Erskine's LARGER INSTITUTES.

I asked my new friend whether he could not direct me to any house
of public entertainment for the night; and supposing it probable
he was himself a poor man, I added, with the conscious dignity of
a well-filled pocket-book, that I could make it worth any man's
while to oblige me. The fisherman making no answer, I turned