transported by some magic sleight into
another world, in which he was to become at home. With eagerness he now
fell upon every thing that he could get hold of respecting China, the
Chinese, and Pekin; and having somewhere found the Chinese sounds
described, he laboured to pronounce them according to the description,
with a fine chanting voice; nay, he even endeavoured, by means of the
paper-scissors, to give his handsome calimanco bed-gowns the Chinese
cut as much as possible, that he might have the pleasure of walking the
streets of Pekin in the fashion. Nothing else could excite his
attention--to the great annoyance of his tutor, who just then wished to
instil into him the history of the Hanseatic League, according to the
express wish of Mr. Tyss; but the old gentleman found to his sorrow,
that Peregrine was not to be brought out of Pekin, wherefore he brought
Pekin out of the boy's chamber.

The elder Mr. Tyss had always considered it a bad omen that Peregrine,
as a little child, should prefer counters to ducats, and next should
manifest a decided abhorrence of moneybags, ledgers, and waste books.
But what seemed most singular was, that he never could hear the word
"bill of exchange" pronounced without having his teeth set on edge, and
he assured them that he felt at the sound as if some one was scratching
up and down a pane of glass with the point of a knife. Mr. Tyss,
therefore, could not help seeing that his son was spoilt for a
merchant, and however he might wish to have him treading in his
footsteps, yet he readily gave up this desire, under the idea that
Peregrine would apply himself to some decided occupation. It was a
maxim of his, that the richest man ought to have an employment, and
thereby a settled station in life; people with no occupation were an
abomination to him, and it was precisely to this _no-occupation_ that
his son was entirely devoted, with all the knowledge which he had
picked up in his own way, and which lay chaotically confounded in his
brain. This was now the greatest and most pressing anxiety of Mr. Tyss.
Peregrine wished to know nothing of the actual world, the old man lived
in that only; from which contradiction it could not but be that, the
older Peregrine grew, the worse became the discord between father and
son, to the no little sorrow of the mother: she cordially conceded to
Peregrine, who was otherwise the best of sons, his mode of life, in
mere dreams and fancies, though to her ind