few
pounds' worth of hardware, Wilson being so kind as sell me, at cost, one
dozen of Barcelona silk handkerchiefs, of which he had a great supply,
and which he esteemed as valuable and light of carriage. The remainder
of my cash he made me take out of my purse, saying that none but those
who knew not the value of money carried it in purses. It was as if the
owner had collected it for the first who chose to put his hand in his
pocket, or for a vain display.

"Square," said he, "if you had a thousand guineas in your pocket, among
strangers never show or say you have a coin in gold. Tempt no man to
evil. The poor travel safe, when the rich are in peril. Allow me to
place your guineas in the bank."

He then opened the lining of the waistband of my small-clothes, and
stitched them in so dexterously, that no one could have thought there
was coin there.

"Now," says he, "we are all ready to start for London on the morning.
The way is long, and our burdens heavy; but they will get lighter as we
move along. Our lodging for to-morrow night is Belford. I shall manage
so that we shall reach it before dark. The direct distance is only
fifteen miles; but we may travel thirty in quest of customers. You are
not now, as you were a few months since, to expect that customers will
come to you--the pack is a travelling counter, and must move about."

Next morning, after an early breakfast, we crossed the Tweed, and walked
on, with our packs slung over our shoulders--the weather cool and
pleasing. I felt a buoyancy of spirits I had not experienced for some
time; I dreamed waking dreams, and built castles in the air. Wilson sung
snatches of songs. I had once more entered on a new walk in life, and
begun at the right end, as Wilson said in one of his sage remarks.

"Square, your last misfortune arose from this--you began business at the
wrong end; you commenced too soon and too full. No man can manage money
well who knows not, by earning, the value of it. Be prudent--be cunning,
too, if you please; but use not your cunning to wrong any one--a
shilling won by fraud is a pound of loss. I have known many since I
began who have hastened to be rich in that way; but they have all failed
in their attempts. Those who once dealt would never deal with them
again; their means of success became every journey more circumscribed.
Here is a farm-steading--we must try how we are to succeed on the south
of the Tweed."

I will not weary you with our ha