we arrived
at a part of the shore with which I was utterly unacquainted, when I
alighted and began to return in the best fashion I could my thanks for
the important service which he had just rendered me.

The stranger only replied by an impatient 'pshaw!' and was about to ride
off, and leave me to my own resources when I implored him to complete
his work of kindness by directing me to Shepherd's Bush, which was, as I
informed him, my home for the present.

'To Shepherd's Bush?' he said; 'it is but three miles but if you know
not the land better than the sand, you may break your neck before you
get there; for it is no road for a moping boy in a dark night; and,
besides, there are the brook and the fens to cross.'

I was a little dismayed at this communication of such difficulties as my
habits had not called on me to contend with. Once more the idea of thy
father's fireside came across me; and I could have been well contented
to have swapped the romance of my situation, together with the glorious
independence of control which I possessed at the moment, for the
comforts of that chimney-corner, though I were obliged to keep my eyes
chained to Erskine's LARGER INSTITUTES.

I asked my new friend whether he could not direct me to any house of
public entertainment for the night; and supposing it probable he was
himself a poor man, I added, with the conscious dignity of a well-filled
pocket-book, that I could make it worth any man's while to oblige me.
The fisherman making no answer, I turned away from him with as gallant
an appearance of indifference as I could command, and began to take, as
I thought, the path which he had pointed out to me.

His deep voice immediately sounded after me to recall me. 'Stay, young
man, stay--you have mistaken the road already.--I wonder your friends
sent out such an inconsiderate youth, without some one wiser than
himself to take care of him.'

'Perhaps they might not have done so,' said I, 'if I had any friends who
cared about the matter.'

'Well, sir,' he said, 'it is not my custom to open my house to
strangers, but your pinch is like to be a smart one; for, besides the
risk from bad roads, fords, and broken ground, and the night,
which looks both black and gloomy, there is bad company on the road
sometimes--at least it has a bad name, and some have come to harm; so
that I think I must for once make my rule give way to your necessity,
and give you a night's lodging in my cottage.

W