lthough they do show some affinity to
geese by their venturing upon the treacherous fluid.

The door was opened, and I found myself in the presence of Mrs
Culpepper and her daughter,--the heiress, as I afterwards discovered, to
all Mr Culpepper's savings, which were asserted to be something
considerable after thirty years' employment as purser of various vessels
belonging to his Majesty.

Mrs Culpepper was in person enormous--she looked like a feather-bed
standing on end; her cheeks were as large as a dinner-plate, eyes almost
as imperceptible as a mole's, nose just visible, mouth like a round O.
It was said that she was once a great Devonshire beauty. Time, who has
been denominated _Edax rerum_, certainly had as yet left her untouched,
reserving her for a _bonne bouche_ on some future occasion.

She sat in a very large arm-chair--indeed, no common-sized chair could
have received her capacious person. She did not get up when I entered;
indeed, as I discovered, she made but two attempts to stand during the
twenty-four hours; one was to come out of her bedroom, which was on the
same floor as the parlour, and the other to go in again.

Miss Culpepper was somewhat of her mother's build. She might have been
twenty years old, and was, for a girl of her age, exuberantly fat; yet
as her skin and complexion were not coarse, many thought her handsome;
but she promised to be as large as her mother, and certainly was not at
all suited for a wife to a subaltern of a marching regiment.

"Who have we here?" said Mrs Culpepper to her husband, in a sort of low
croak; for she was so smothered with fat that she could not get her
voice out.

"Well, I hardly know," replied the gentleman, wiping his forehead; "but
I've my own opinion."

"Mercy on me, how very like!" exclaimed Miss Culpepper, looking at me,
and then at her father. "Would not you like to go into the garden,
little boy?" continued she: "there, through the passage, out of the
door,--you can't miss it."

As this was almost a command, I did not refuse to go; but as soon as I
was in the garden, which was a small patch of ground behind the house,
as the window to the parlour was open, and my curiosity was excited by
their evidently wishing to say something which they did not wish me to
hear, I stopped under the window and listened.

"The very picture of him," continued the young lady.

"Yes, yes, very like indeed," croaked the old one.

"All I know is," said Mr Culp