eed unintelligible, and she
could not conceive why her husband would positively impose upon him a
decided occupation.

By the advice of tried friends, Tyss sent his son to the university of
Jena, but when, after three years, he returned, the old man exclaimed,
full of wrath and vexation, "Did I not think so? Hans the dreamer he
went away, Hans the dreamer he comes back again." And so far he was
quite right, for the student was substantially unaltered. Still he did
not give up all hope of bringing the degenerate Peregrine to reason,
thinking that if he were once forced into some employment, he might,
perhaps, change his mind in the end, and take a pleasure in it. With
this view he sent him to Hamburgh, with commissions that did not
require any particular knowledge of business, and moreover commended
him to a friend there, who was to assist him faithfully in all things.

Peregrine arrived at Hamburgh, where he gave into the hands of his
father's friend not only his letter of recommendation, but all the
papers too that related to his commissions, and immediately
disappeared, no one knew whither. Hereupon the friend wrote to Mr.
Tyss:

"I have punctually received your honoured letter of the----by the hands
of your son. The same, however, has not shown himself since, but set
off from Hamburgh immediately, without leaving any commission. In
peppers we are doing little; cotton goes off heavily; in coffee, the
middle sort only is inquired after: but on the other hand molasses
maintain their price pleasantly; and in indigo there is not much
fluctuation. I have the honour," &c.

This letter would have plunged Mr. Tyss and his spouse into no little
alarm, if by the very same post another had not arrived from the lost
son, wherein he excused himself, with the most melancholy expressions,
saying that it had been utterly impossible for him to execute the
received commissions, according to his father's wishes, and that he
found himself irresistibly attracted to foreign countries, from which
he hoped to return home in a year's time with a happier and more
cheerful disposition.

"It is well," said the old man, "that the younker should look about him
in the world; he may get shaken out of his day dreams."--And when
Peregrine's mother expressed an anxiety lest he should want money for
his long journey, and that, therefore, his carelessness was much to be
blamed in not having written to tell them where he was going, the old
gentlema