The Project Gutenberg EBook of Freaks on the Fells, by R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: Freaks on the Fells
Three Months' Rustication

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23505]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FREAKS ON THE FELLS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

FREAKS ON THE FELLS, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER 1.

MR SUDBERRY IN HIS COUNTING-HOUSE.

Mr John Sudberry was a successful London merchant. He was also a fat
little man. Moreover, he was a sturdy little man, wore spectacles, and
had a smooth bald head, over which, at the time we introduce him to the
reader, fifty summers had passed, with their corresponding autumns,
winters, and springs. The passage of so many seasons over him appeared
to have exercised a polishing influence on the merchant, for Mr
Sudberry's cranium shone like a billiard-ball. In temperament Mr
Sudberry was sanguine, and full of energy. He could scarcely have been
a successful merchant without these qualities. He was also extremely
violent.

Now, it is necessary here to guard the reader from falling into a
mistake in reference to Mr Sudberry's character. We have said that he
was violent, but it must not be supposed that he was _passionate_. By
no means. He was the most amiable and sweet-tempered of men. His
violence was owing to physical rather than mental causes. He was hasty
in his volitions, impulsive in his actions, madly reckless in his
personal movements. His moral and physical being was capable of only
two conditions--deep repose or wild activity.

At his desk Mr Sudberry was wont to sit motionless like a statue, with
his face buried in his hands and his thoughts busy. When these thoughts
culminated, he would start as if he had received an electric shock,
seize a pen, and, with pursed lips and frowning brows, send it careering
over the paper with harrowing rapidity, squeaking and chirping, (the
pen, not the man), like a small bird with a bad cold. Mr Sudberry used
quills. He was a _tremendous_ writer. He could have reported the
debates of the "House" in long-hand.

The mercha