avined legs, imposed on him as "a great
bargain entirely," by the superior cunning of some rustic sharper; or
standing over a hogshead of damaged flaxseed, in the purchase of which
he shrewdly suspected himself of having overreached the seller--by
allowing him for it a greater price than the prime seed of the market
would have cost tim. In short, Ned was never out of a speculation, and
whatever he undertook was sure to prove a complete failure. But he
had one mode of consolation, which consisted in sitting down with the
fag-end of Nancy's capital in his pocket, and drinking night and day
with this neighbor and that, whilst a shilling remained; and when he
found himself at the end of his tether, he was sure to fasten a quarrel
on some friend or acquaintance, and to get his head broken for his
pains.

None of all this blustering, however, happened within the range of
Nancy's jurisdiction. Ned, indeed, might drink and sing, and swagger and
fight--and he contrived to do so; but notwithstanding all his apparent
courage, there was one eye which made him quail, and before which he
never put on the hector;--there was one, in whose presence the loudness
of his song would fall away into a very awkward and unmusical quaver,
and under whose glance his laughing face often changed to the visage of
a man who is disposed to anything but mirth.

The fact was this: Whenever Ned found that his speculation was gone
a shaughran, (*Gone astray) as he termed it, he fixed himself in some
favorite public house, from whence he seldom stirred while his money
lasted, except when dislodged by Nancy, who usually, upon learning where
he had taken cover, paid him an unceremonious visit, to which Ned's
indefensible delinquency gave the color of legitimate authority. Upon
these occasions, Nancy, accompanied by two sturdy "servant-boys," would
sally forth to the next market-town, for the purpose of bringing home
"graceless Ned," as she called him. And then you might see Ned between
the two servants, a few paces in advance of Nancy, having very much
the appearance of a man performing a pilgrimage to the gallows, or of
a deserter guarded back to his barrack, in order to become a target for
the muskets of his comrades. Ned's compulsory return always became
a matter of some notoriety; for Nancy's excursion in quest of the
"graceless" was not made without frequent denunciations of wrath against
him, and many melancholy apologies to the neighbors for entering