e to a bearded man; and if they were assailed or
ridiculed it might seriously injure me in my practical vocation. That
last consideration, were I quite alone in the world, might not much
weigh on me; but there are others for whose sake I should like to make
fortune and preserve station. Many years ago--it was in Germany--I fell
in with a German student who was very poor, and who did make money by
wandering about the country with lute and song. He has since become a
poet of no mean popularity, and he has told me that he is sure he found
the secret of that popularity in habitually consulting popular tastes
during his roving apprenticeship to song. His example strongly impressed
me. So I began this experiment; and for several years my summers have
been all partly spent in this way. I am only known, as I think I told
you before, in the rounds I take as 'The Wandering Minstrel;' I receive
the trifling moneys that are bestowed on me as proofs of a certain
merit. I should not be paid by poor people if I did not please; and the
songs which please them best are generally those I love best myself.
For the rest, my time is not thrown away,--not only as regards bodily
health, but healthfulness of mind: all the current of one's ideas
becomes so freshened by months of playful exercise and varied
adventure."

"Yes, the adventure is varied enough," said Kenelm, somewhat ruefully;
for he felt, in shifting his posture, a sharp twinge of his bruised
muscles. "But don't you find those mischief-makers, the women, always
mix themselves up with adventure?"

"Bless them! of course," said the minstrel, with a ringing laugh. "In
life, as on the stage, the petticoat interest is always the strongest."

"I don't agree with you there," said Kenelm, dryly. "And you seem to
me to utter a claptrap beneath the rank of your understanding. However,
this warm weather indisposes one to disputation; and I own that a
petticoat, provided it be red, is not without the interest of colour in
a picture."

"Well, young gentleman," said the minstrel, rising, "the day is wearing
on, and I must wish you good-by; probably, if you were to ramble about
the country as I do, you would see too many pretty girls not to teach
you the strength of petticoat interest,--not in pictures alone; and
should I meet you again I may find you writing love-verses yourself."

"After a conjecture so unwarrantable, I part company with you less
reluctantly than I otherwise might do. But