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You are well aware that there were no quarries in the valley of the Nile, and to think that the material was brought stone by stone from the mountains, as buildings were in the process of being raised, is absurd. Another fact I could bring in support of my hypothesis is, the insignificance of the chambers they contain compared with the bulk of the piles themselves, of whose builders the sole object seems to have been the heaping together of the greatest possible quantity of stone in the smallest possible space, and safest possible figure."

"Bah!" interjected Bob.

Thus conversing we padded along, while the rising sun poured around us all the glorious freshness and fragrance of a midsummer morning. Leaving behind us the scattered outskirts of the populous suburbs of Soandso, we marched northward along a road winding through cultivated fields and dense plantations, every thing around rejoicing in the beauty of early day, and raising in our hearts a feeling of exhilaration like that excited by the clear laugh of a youthful maiden's glee.

Now the path would ascend a gentle inclination, from the summit of which we could see a bright expanse of landscape stretching far before us, and on either side, with the sinuous road winding through it, like a tangled piece of yellow tape, now hid behind a wood-crowned eminence, now lost amid a spreading flood of deep green foliage, far and widely inundating the noble prospect; scattered also over which were to be caught frequent glimpses of skyey water, which the eye delighted to puzzle itself withal, endeavouring to trace them into a river or lengthened lake; while in the front distance, upsprang before the view the lofty hills, the object of our travel, steeped in a rich and vapoury aerial tint, that varied in its warmth from the deepest blue to the lightest and most heavenly rosiness.

Then, as we descended the acclivity, while this bright scene seemed to sink from the sight around us, we would have haply on one side the way a hay-field, with the farm people, male and female, crowding jocund at their early labour, and laughing and talking loudly as they turned and tedded the odorous grass. Anon, when we reached the bottom of the hollow, a streamlet would salute us, rattling cheerily between and under its bosky banks, dipping suddenly beneath the road, then popping its noisy prattle out at the other side, and running merrily away, like a pretty child playing with you at bo-peep.

Nay, the very air thrilled with the clear melody of birds about and over us, and once from out a thick green wood, about two fields off or so, a dulcet music came floating to our ears, which Bob, standing still in a rapture, averred upon his credit to be that of the nightingale, heaven's own high chorister.

Presently, as we walked on, our eyes would be attracted to the sombre pinnacles of some dusky old ruin, the castle erst of grim baron or gallant knight, rising majestically dark from out the deep green foliage that surrounded it, and half a mile farther we would come to a princely modern mansion, with pillared gateway and sweeping avenue, far up which could be spied a man walking with a gun in his hand, and a couple of dogs at his heels-the gamekeeper on his morning rounds.

All was brightness, warmth, freshness, and promise, and as we marched along we ceased to talk, and whistled and sang in very light

ness of heart.

Farther and farther as the morning advanced into day, the highway became thronged with country folks, young men and maidens crowding into the town, for it was a great corn and cattle market-day; their quaint dresses contrasting strangely in cut and texture with what we had been used to see worn by townspeople. Frequent herds of cattle and flocks of sheep passed us, and carts, cars, and waggons, and now and then a group of young horses, prancing along with their ears flaunting with gay ribbons.

But when we had travelled thus for two or three hours, stopping frequently to admire points of view, to chat with young country-girls tripping lightly to the fair, to sketch a cottage near a wood, or to smoke a cheroot under a green tree, at length our stomachs (admirable chronometers !) began to indicate the hour for breakfast. The first symptom of this came from my companion, who solemnly swore that the vacuum of Torricelli was a joke to what existed in his stomach, and that though the former, in some opinions, might be actually filled with the vapour of water, or of mercury, yet the latter, in his own opinion, required a supply of a decidedly more stimulating description.

To this I replied by proposing an immediate attack upon the contents of my plant case. This was negatived by my friend, whose idea was that we should retire from the public path, and in some sequestered spot enjoy the luxury of a rustic breakfast, with a rest at the same time. With this view he was about to lead the way up a beautiful green lane, when suddenly our attention was attracted to a figure, which rounding a turn in the road, a short way in advance, came into view, moving swiftly toward us.

It was a slight but very well-made young man, in age apparently a little beyond twenty years. He wore a short, round coat, of what had once been green corduroy, a waistcoat of a thick, heavy shawl stuff, very brilliant in its pattern, but somewhat frayed and buttonless, yet clean. It was open, exposing a shirt of a blue check, round which a Turkey-red cotton handkerchief had been tied by way of neckcloth. His other garments were of that kind a thin pair of which, when in company with a light heart, is wisely said to have an amazing facility in going through the world (brave boys). To one side of his head drooped gracefully a glazed cap, glistening in the sunbeams, and over his shoulder he bore a long sword, with an old leather hatbox dangling from its point behind him. The fellow, like all other vagabonds, had curled hair, and a goodhumoured face, and came along whistling loudly and clearly the air from "Fra Diavolo," "On yonder rock reclining."

As he came up Bob accosted this remarkable specimen with— "Would you sell your whistle, comrade ?"

"No, but I should like to wet it, if it's all the same to you," was the reply.

"You shall wet it, and whet your appetite too," cried Bob. "Come with us, we are just going out of the way to enjoy a quiet breakfast; come and share it, you are most welcome. Never fear, there's lots of prog!"

Why for that matter, gents," quoth he, "I have myself some slices of cold corned beef, and half a loaf, two hard boiled eggs, and a flask of gin, and with your leave I shall be glad to join you. More than that, I have some niggerhead, a short pipe, and a gun flint, and a bit of steel in my pockets for a light."

"Never mind," said Bob, as we moved up the lane together: "my young friend there carries a lens of singularly concentrative power, one of old Dolland's, and if that fail, I have in my pocket a phial of Nordhausen sulphuric acid, that would burn Beelzebub's eye out."

We might have gone a couple of hundred yards up the lane, rounding two turnings in the way, when we came to a high old Gothic arch, spanning a small stream. This came down through a scooped channel, the sides of which were plentifully overhung with birches and willows, with abundance of bushes and red-berried mountain-ashes intermingled. Nevertheless, along the sunny side of the water there ran a long rounded stripe of most vivid green sward, with a narrow edging of white pebbles.

We were at once unanimous in selecting this spot as the scene of our repast, and so one after the other, jumping over the corner of the bridge, we found our way to the bank, over sweeter than which Titania herself never led the revels.

I was the first down, being the lightest of the three, but the moment my foot touched the sward, I stood fixed, whilst escaped me the halfsmothered exclamation, "Dorothea washing her feet!" for my thoughts were flown with on the instant to a scene in that most witching of romances, the adventures of the dear old Don of La Mancha.

It was a beautiful young damsel that I saw, and she sat on the grass by the water's edge, with one foot on her opposite knee, whereat she appeared to be gazing most earnestly and pitifully, unconscious of our vicinity. Her thick chestnut hair fell loosely over her shoulders, for it had never been humbugged with oil, or any other cosmetic, and her little cottage straw bonnet lay on the grass beside her, a thing unwonted to her, the virgin snood of blue satin ribbon being her usual headdress. Her face was most singularly sweet and simple, her figure light and girlish, and her whole aspect expressive of innocence, youth, prettiness, and rusticity.

As soon as she saw us she sprang up, and with her face sweetly red, as a robin's bosom, stood gazing at us, balancing herself on her heel, and trembling violently.

"Bless me!" cried my friend," she has a thorn in her foot," and stepping gently forward, he took from his waistcoat-pocket a pigmy case of surgical instruments (the manufacture of his own hands, for Bob had a genius), and himself blushing a little, offered his aid..

The girl, apparently not knowing what better to do, allowed him, and in a trice he had extracted the obnoxious thorn, and with a little bit of lint, and a tiny strap of lead plaster, dressed the puncture, so as almost entirely to remove the pain. Thereupon, her colour flushing and paling, a smile of bashful pleasure filled her countenance at the relief she experienced, though her modesty could not in words express the gratitude she felt. But Bob, lifting from the grass her shawl of dark-coloured tartan, threw it upon her shoulders, and while she hurriedly clubbed up her hair behind, took her bonnet, and going

round in front, drew it upon her head, and as he moved it this way and that way, to inake it sit prettily, there echoed under the arch, and all among the rocks, trees, and bushes, a sound which those skilled in wood-notes wild would infallibly have pronounced to be a smack. Upon this the creature sprang from us, and ran lightly up the bank. But she paused upon the bridge, and giving us one glance-probably to see if we were not looking the other way, jumped off like a startled fawn.

As she did, Bob knocked his heel to the ground with vehemence, and dropping upon the grass, pulled the bottle from his box, clapped it to his head, and remained for a while gazing fixedly up to heaven. Then it passed to me, and from me to the stranger, who drawing from his pocket a little leathern cup, took a quantity which he tempered with water from the stream, for his stomach was a southern one, of a Yorkshire fabric, and not at all calculated for the geyser fluids of the far north.

Seating ourselves upon the grass, at a spot where the scattered foliage of a young willow afforded a kind of half-shade, half-sunshine, we opened our several stores, and commenced upon proceedings, which I am certain would at once have convinced a materialist of the unstable nature of his theories with regard to the indestructibility of matter.

Whilst this went on, frequent were the jests, the quips and cranks, that flew from each to each, nor was the laughter that resounded among the rocky ledges less clear and cheerful than the merry rush of the limpid waters near us.

But when we had concluded our repast, the properties of my lens were called into requisition, and having procured a Promethean spark from the sun, I returned under the shade, where communicating the fire to my friend and the stranger, we reclined at length upon the bank, and forthwith began to fling into the air clouds of incense, fragrant as ever ascended before Diana's shrine, for I had in a pocket of my jacket a case of Manillas stuffed to the full; moreover, in the crown of my friend's hat was a brown paper parcel, containing as many more, of as rich a quality.

At length my comrade taking the cheroot from his mouth, pointed with it to the bed of the stream, and remarked,

"I remember a certain passage in Eschylus, I think, where he compares the muscles of a strong man in action to the rounded waterworn stones in the bed of a rivulet-a most happy and original simile, is it not?".

Upon my acquiescing in its aptness, our companion asked who was this Mr. What'soname.

"An old Grecian," said Bob, "that my friend here and I have been intimate with-but we should not have mentioned him-probably you don't know about these things?"

"Oh, don't I! I should surmise it's not the first time I have tried it on. Look ye here."

And springing up, he threw his symmetrical though slender frame into certain violent but by no means unpicturesque attitudes, which he informed us constituted the "Grecian Statues," as done by the first performers, beginning with "Ajax defying the lightning," and concluding with the fighting and dying Gladiator in six positions."

66

All this, which he went through with an amusing jauntiness of demeanour, was highly entertaining to us, and we acknowledged, by mutually understood signs, that we had stumbled upon an original.

We thanked him for his display, and handed him another cheroot, when throwing himself carelessly upon the sod, he entered with amazing spirit and volubility into a rambling conversation about all sorts of theatrical matters, in the course of which he displayed a singular freedom and communicativeness in talking of his own fortunes.

He had been a player from his infancy-from his birth, in fact, having come into the world behind the scenes, in a barn, during the performance of "The Devil to Pay" to a crowded and enthusiastic audience. Thereafter he had performed all kinds of parts, from the baby in the pantomime, and the child in "Pizzaro," to King Lear and Ali Pasha -tragedy, comedy, farce, or melodrama, coming alike indifferently to him. Moreover, he had practised as ventriloquist, rope-dancer, posturer, clown of a circus, tumbler, and Indian juggler, and the sword he bore with him had been swallowed into his stomach and brandished against the Earl of Richmond with equal frequency and effect.

We had all along felt a singular interest in him, he appeared so good humoured, so regardless, so much a child of Providence. Never did I see one seemingly so well acquainted with the world, and yet so easy, unsuspecting, so blest with animal spirits, and withal so unpresuming, and I began to feel a kind of regret that a few minutes would sever us, probably never to meet more.

Possibly similar feelings were passing through his mind; for, after a pensive silence of some duration, when we remarked that in this his checkered career he must have been a witness to many strange scenes, he came out abruptly, and without preface, with the following anecdote, which I here introduce as EPISODE No. I. of this my epic article, christening it with a drop of ink by the title of

66 THE EQUESTRIAN'S CHILD."

"Ir is about three years since I was engaged to play in an equestrian company. It was managed by a Mr. Codoni, of Italian extraction, and of much respectability. For a short time previously I had been an ill-remunerated member of a country dramatic circuit, in which low comic parts had principally fallen to my lot. This person taking a fancy to my powers in that way, made offer to me of the tempting salary of two guineas a week to become clown to the ring in this exhibition. I must confess I had some qualms. The descent from the legitimate drama was sufficiently bitter to the feelings of a young actor, and I feared that for the future my pretensions to respectability would be four-feeted, like those of my quadruped fellow-performers (I beg pardon, for I shan't err a second time)-but I put the affront into my pocket, and the two guineas into the opposite one; when, finding my equilibrium perfect, I at once deserted the boards and took to the sawdust-threw up the sock and buskin, and donned the cap and bells, and very excellent fooling I made, believe me.

Mr. Codoni's establishment was a very superb one, in fact the most so of any thing of the kind that ever existed in England, out of the

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