sn't so poor! I don't want your gold. Why are you out so late?'

We informed her of our arrival from the country, and wanderings in the
fog.

'And you'll say you're not tired, I know,' the girl remarked, and
laughed to hear how correctly she had judged of our temper. Our thirst
and hunger, however, filled her with concern, because of our not being
used to it as she was, and no place was open to supply our wants. Her
friend, the saucy one, accompanied by a man evidently a sailor, joined
us, and the three had a consultation away from Temple and me, at the end
of which the sailor, whose name was Joe, raised his leg dancingly, and
smacked it. We gave him our hands to shake, and understood, without
astonishment, that we were invited on, board his ship to partake of
refreshment. We should not have been astonished had he said on board his
balloon. Down through thick fog of a lighter colour, we made our way to
a narrow lane leading to the river-side, where two men stood thumping
their arms across their breasts, smoking pipes, and swearing. We entered
a boat and were rowed to a ship. I was not aware how frozen and befogged
my mind and senses had become until I had taken a desperate and long
gulp of smoking rum-and-water, and then the whole of our adventures
from morning to midnight, with the fir-trees in the country fog, and the
lamps in the London fog, and the man who had lost his son, the fire, the
Bench, the old woman with her fowl-like cry and limbs in the air, and
the row over the misty river, swam flashing before my eyes, and I cried
out to the two girls, who were drinking out of one glass with the sailor
Joe, my entertainer, 'Well, I'm awake now!' and slept straight off the
next instant.

CHAPTER XII. WE FIND OURSELVES BOUND ON A VOYAGE

It seemed to me that I had but taken a turn from right to left, or
gone round a wheel, when I repeated the same words, and I heard Temple
somewhere near me mumble something like them. He drew a long breath, so
did I: we cleared our throats with a sort of whinny simultaneously. The
enjoyment of lying perfectly still, refreshed, incurious, unexcited, yet
having our minds animated, excursive, reaping all the incidents of our
lives at leisure, and making a dream of our latest experiences, kept us
tranquil and incommunicative. Occasionally we let fall a sigh fathoms
deep, then by-and-by began blowing a bit of a wanton laugh at the end
of it. I raised my foot and saw the boot on it, wh