high cap, which fitted so close round her little
visage, that hair, if any, was undistinguishable.

The room in which she sat resembled the cabin of a ship in more respects
than one. It was particularly low in the root so low that the seaman's
hair touched it as he stood there looking round him; and across this
roof ran a great beam, from which hung a variety of curious ornaments,
such as a Chinese lantern, a Turkish scimitar, a New Zealand club, an
Eastern shield, and the model of a full-rigged ship. Elsewhere on the
walls were, an ornamented dagger, a worsted-work sampler, a framed sheet
of the flags of all nations, a sou'-wester cap and oiled coat, a
telescope, and a small staring portrait of a sea-captain in his
"go-to-meeting" clothes, which looked very much out of keeping with his
staring sunburnt face, and were a bad fit. It might have been a good
likeness, and was certainly the work of one who might have raised
himself to the rank of a Royal Academician if he had possessed
sufficient talent and who might have painted well if he had understood
the principles of drawing and colour.

The windows of the apartment, of which there were two very small square
ones, looked out upon the river, and, to some extent overhung it, so
that a man of sanguine temperament might have enjoyed fishing from them,
if he could have been content to catch live rats and dead cats. The
prospect from these windows was, however, the best of them, being a wide
reach of the noble river, crowded with its stately craft, and cut up by
its ever-bustling steamers. But the most noteworthy part of this room,
or "cabin," was the space between the two windows immediately over the
chimney-piece, which the eccentric old woman had covered with a large,
and, in some cases, inappropriate assortment of objects, by way of
ornament, each article being cleaned and polished to the highest
possible condition of which it was susceptible. A group of five
photographs of children--three girls and two boys, looking amazed--
formed the centrepiece of the design; around these were five other
photographs of three young ladies and two young gentlemen, looking
conscious, but pleased. The spaces between these, and every available
space around them, were occupied by pot-lids of various sizes, old and
battered, but shining like little suns; small looking-glasses, also of
various sizes, some square and others round; little strings of beads;
heads of meerschaums that ha