isurely up the valley, coming in a direction from the
neighbouring town--a distance, however, of some miles, and the nearest
point where the coach stopped. The stranger, aided in his walk by a
stout stick, was a short, thickset, elderly man, clad in brown
habiliments from head to foot: a brown, broad-brimmed beaver, an
antiquated brown spencer (a brown wig must not be omitted), brown
gaiters, and brown cloth boots, completed his attire. His linen was
spotless and fine, his countenance rubicund and benevolent; and when
he took off his green spectacles, a pair of the clearest and honestest
brown eyes ever set in mortal's head looked you full in the face. He
was a nice, comfortable-looking old gentleman; and so Thomas and I
both thought at the same moment--for Martha was out of the way, and I
shewed the apartments for her; the stranger, who gave his name as Mr
Budge, having been directed to our house by the people of the inn
where the coach stopped, who were kin to Martha, and well-disposed,
obliging persons.

Mr Budge said he wanted quietness for some weeks, and the recreation
of fishing; he had come from the turmoil of the great city to relax
and enjoy himself, and if Thomas Wesley would kindly consent to
receive him as a lodger, he would feel very much obliged. Never did we
listen to so pleasant and obliging a mode of speaking; and when Mr
Budge praised the apartments, and admired the country, the conquest of
Thomas's heart was complete. 'Besides,' as Martha sagaciously
remarked, 'it was so much better to have a steady old gentleman like
this for a lodger, when pretty Miss Marion honoured them as a guest.'
I thought so too; my dear young lady being so lone and unprotected by
relatives, we all took double care of her.

So Mr Budge engaged the rooms, and speedily arrived to take
possession, bringing with him a spick-and-span new fishing-rod and
basket. He did not know much about fishing, but he enjoyed himself
just as thoroughly as if he did; and he laughed so good-humouredly at
his own Cockney blunders, as he called them, that Thomas would have
been quite angry had any one else presumed to indulge a smile at Mr
Budge's expense. A pattern lodger in all respects was Mr
Budge--deferential towards Martha and myself, and from the first
moment he beheld Miss Marion, regarding her as a superior being, yet
one to be loved by a mortal for all that. Mr Budge was not a
particularly communicative individual himself, though we opin