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sure! I know we have passed it, for this | you have come, and here you must stay. is the way we go to London. What shall I wish it were a palace for your sake." we do?" "Dear, kind boy!" murmured she. "It was nothing, a mere nothing so glad so thankful such a happy ending

She had to get out, and wait in the bitter cold at a little side station for nearly an hour, Yet she never faltered.

"This fire might be a little larger, but what there is of it is quite hot. Come nearer, Jeannette-come, my good girl, warm your feet as I do. Oh, there is plenty of room-plenty. You are cold as well as I. Ah! I wonder how poor Mrs. Tresham is now? But we must not expect to hear till we are there."

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John had hurried out of the room. "Coals of fire! Yes, indeed, my little wife, a perfect furnace is about to descend on your head now."

It would doubtless have been more prudent if the knowledge of Lady Adelaide's arrival could have been concealed from the sick one.

But independently of the fact that in so

It was late in the afternoon ere the small a dwelling it was difficult to conceal travellers arrived at the Cottage.

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John looked perfectly confounded.

"You shall not be troubled with us, my dear. I have thought it all over. We will go down to that good little inn where I know they will do everything to make us comfortable. Jeannette is to tell the driver it is all arranged. But I could not help coming, though Sir Walter said it was foolish."

"Foolish!" cried John, seizing both her hands, and choking down a great sob in his throat- "foolish! It was the best, and the kindest, and-and-there isn't one woman in a thousand would have done it. God bless you, aunt! Neither she nor I will ever forget this." "Oh, my dear! She was quite overcome. Two large, warm tears rolled down her cheeks, and settled on the velvet strings of her bon

net.

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"To think of your coming here all by yourself, and fighting your way among porters and cabmen!" continued John, aware of the miseries this involved to his helpless relative. "You, who never travelled alone in your life! And the Priory closed! And not a creature to meet you! But go to the inn you shall not. Here

any event that took place, John felt that he owed it to his aunt to let her journey and its object be known.

True, had he suggested secrecy, she would not only have acquiesced without a murmur, but would have instantly felt that she had been imprudent in expecting anything else; but it would have been a disappointment which he could not have borne to inflict. More, it would have been an injustice. Elizabeth must know, ought to know, the true worth of one whom she valued so slightly.

Although weak, the invalid was now on the way to recover; and he felt he might venture on the announcement without danger of harming her.

Like his own, her first emotion was one of extreme surprise.

"John! Aunt Adelaide! What for? How did she come? How long has she been here?"

"When I wrote yesterday, dear, you were very ill. Dr. Birch was anxious about you. I could not disguise it in my letter, and it they only received this morning. The better report I sent to-day will not arrive there till to-morrow."

"And you mean that Sir Walter and Lady Adelaide set off on the strength of that letter?"He is safe at

"Not Sir Walter. Brighton."

"John, did she come by herself?" "By herself; bringing that French girl with her."

"On this dreadful day!"

"Drove up from the station in that old jangling fly with its broken window, and was preparing to sleep to-night at the public-house!

"You will not let her?"

"No, dear, no. It is all settled. And now, Elizabeth, what do you think of the poor aunt now?"

Elizabeth's pale face flushed.

"I should like to see her."

On tiptoe Lady Adelaide came, her long silk dress rustling behind her all the way up-stairs, and getting itself shut into the doorway as she approached the bedside.

None of them once thought of the infection.

Lady Adelaide stooped to kiss her niece, and Elizabeth threw her arms around her neck.

("She may call me clever every day of my life from this time henceforth, but I will never think of her as a fool again.”)

From Fraser's Magazine.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A VEGETARIAN.*
A TRUE NARRATIVE OF A SUCCESSFUL CAREER.

REPORTED BY C. O. GROOM NAPIER, OF
MERCHISTON, F.G.S.

AFTER the reading of my paper on the vegetarian cure for intemperance, before the Bristol Meeting of the British Association in 1875, I was addressed by an elderly gentleman and his wife, who said my views were strictly in accordance with theirs. After some conversation, we adjourned to his hotel, where he hospitably entertained me and gave me a narrative of his life, with permission to publish it in the interest of the good cause, suppressing his name and abode, as he said he was particularly shy and retired in his habits, and had a great objection to see his name în print.

tice what he had read, as otherwise he found he could not support and clothe himself decently. I will give, now, his own words as nearly as I can recollect.

"I was seventeen years of age then, five feet eight inches high, and strongly built. I had but ten shillings a week for everything. How should I best lay it out? The senior clerk took me as a lodger at eighteenpence a week, for one good room. There was a bedstead in it, but no bedding or other furniture. I was resolved to do what best I could, and owe no man anything. Some canvas coverings, which my good mother had put round my packages, served me to make a mattress when filled with hay. For the first eight weeks I slept in my oldest clothes on this mattress. My diet was ample and nourishing, but very cheap. Threepence a day was the cost. About one pound of beans, which did not cost more than a penny, half a pound of bread daily, and two halfpenny cabbages, and three pounds of potatoes in the week. Twopenny worth of seed oil,* one pound of twopenny rice, and about a farthing's worth of tartart from the wine-casks, constituted my very nourishing diet.

my

"When my parents sent me a basket of fruit, I indulged in it freely; but I did not care for it unless the carriage was paid, Thus IS. which was not always the case. 9d. for food and is. 6d. for my lodging, and 9d. 2gr. for my fuel and light, left me end of the eight weeks I have specified, I 5s. 11d. 2qr. for other purposes. At the He was born in the north of England was in possession of above 27. It took in 1811; but although his hair was grey me nearly this sum to purchase a straw he otherwise appeared better preserved paillasse, blankets, sheets, and pillows by fifteen years than most persons of his second-hand. I persevered for another age. His father was a minister of relig-year on this diet, and found myself in As I had some ion, and he was the eldest of twelve chil- possession of about 127. dren. He was of ancient and distin- respectable acquaintances in the town, I guished lineage, but his father never hav-resolved on spending this sum in furniture, ing had more than 300l. a year, he was in order that I might have a decent room obliged to send his children out early into into which to ask my visitors. Taking a lesson from the poet Goldsmith, I had 'a the world, and so at fourteen he was put into a house of business in a great north-bed by night and a chest of drawers by day,' so that my apartment, alternately For the first three years he had noth-sitting-room and bedroom, was suitable ing but his board with one of the senior clerks, but at the end of that time he got as much dry bread and water for his lunch as he could take and ten shillings a week to board and lodge himself. He accidentally obtained some works on vegetarianism, and was resolved to put in prac

ern town.

[This Defoe-like sketch of human character will, we believe, be found worth reading, apart from questions of diet. - ED.]

for lady visitors. I often invited the lady you see sitting opposite to you, to take tea on Sunday with me and then go to church. She was my own age exactly, and was the of a cruel stepmother; prey

* Oil from rape seed or sesame seed, which last is a favorite oil in the East for cooking, and is procurable in London at half the price of olive oil; it much resembles almond oil.

†The object of the tartar was to take the place of ripe fruit as a vegetable acid.

she was in fact a sort of Cinderella in a ter, milk, tea, coffee, or cocoa unnecessalarge family. Her stepmother aimed at ry. We sometimes took tea in the evenmarrying her to a widower of forty-five, ing, but oftener cold water. We formed with seven children, but this my young the acquaintance of a fruit merchant, who, girl of eighteen objected to. Her father though laughing at our vegetarianism, often at first sanctioned our engagement, but sent us baskets of fruit. I was married when a suitor in a good position came for- in December, and in the following Noward for his daughter, he forbade me the vember my wife had a son. In a few house and made her walk daily with the days the wife of the head of the firm paid gentleman whom we nicknamed 'number us a visit, and the next day I was inforty-five.' I resolved to marry her as formed that my salary was to be raised to soon as I could furnish two more rooms eighteen shillings a week. I was before and had laid in a good stock of clothes. this in great difficulty what to do, as I did "My young lady studied my vegetarian not much like my wife being the sole books and determined not to eat any meat nurse of her child. Before this she had at home. All the family laughed at her, attended to all our wants. I now took an but she was sufficiently resolute to with-Irish servant girl, who was willing to be a stand ridicule. vegetarian and receive sixpence a week in wages for the first year.

"She told her father that he having once sanctioned her engagement to me, "I was in possession at the end of my she must be bound to me and could not second year of married life of 10l. sterling. accept any one else. Her father remon-I will now tell you how I invested it. strated with her, but it was of no use. At Our firm' was both speculative and the end of the two years, when I had just manufacturing, and employed some hunpassed my twentieth birthday, I called on dred workmen, who purchased the tools her father and said, I have now three they required at rather high prices in the rooms well furnished, and am able to town. Ascertaining that the tools might keep your daughter; I want you to fix a be had cheaper at Birmingham and Shefday for my marrying her.' He pressed field, I went myself and laid in a small my hand warmly and said, 'Well, I will stock, which I sold within a week to the give you my blessing into the bargain.' workmen at eighteen per cent. profit, but He was a good-hearted man at bottom, but still full ten per cent. under what they were too much ruled by his wife. He gave my in the habit of paying. Being offered a wife a good large outfit and a purse of month's credit, I received a consignment Iol, and her stepmother even gave her of tools from Birmingham and Sheffield. 21., and her brothers and sisters bought At the end of a year I found myself in posher a family Bible, and one of them wrote session of 150/., which I had made by the in it, 'At the end of ten days their coun- sale of these tools to our own hands. tenances did appear fairer and fatter of My wife kept my books, and this little flesh than all the children which did eat business necessitated the hiring of another the portion of the king's meat. Daniel room. But in other respects this great i. 15.'" increase of income did not induce us to enlarge our expenses.

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The old gentleman laughed very much when he told me this, and said that the vegetarianism of Daniel had been the text of many a sermon which he had preached to his children, who, profiting by so good an example, were all vegetarians.

"A foreman lost his hand through an accident, and was incapacitated for work; I made him my traveller, to call at other workshops and sell tools to workmen.

"The firms at Birmingham and Sheffield But to resume. "I found myself mar- had confidence in me. I obtained credit ried and very happy, but with ten shillings more largely. I engaged a warehouse a week only. We laid out our money as and a clerk. At the end of my fourth follows: we paid three and sixpence for year of marriage I was in possession of three rooms, one shilling for fuel and light, 1,500l. by the sale of these tools. I now three and sixpence for food, and had two thought of a bold project, since I was a shillings for other contingencies. Our capitalist. I went to the head of our firm, food consisted of bean stew three times and said, 'My wife is carrying on a busia week; potato pie twice a week; pud- ness which seems likely to produce us dings without eggs twice a week; carrots, 1,500l. a year clear profit; I have no wish turnips, or some green vegetable daily. to leave your service, but I shall certainly Our breakfast was porridge, either of corn do so, unless my salary is raised to 250l. a or oatmeal. We ate bread with it, thus year.' This sum being agreed on, I was insuring mastication, and rendering but-contented for the present.

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"We now kept two servants, and lived in | I bound myself not to enter into any other

two floors over our warehouse, and 'had
two children.

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business which would aim to rival that of
the firm. On this I took a superior house,
kept a horse and open carriage, two gar-
deners, and otherwise lived at the rate of
about 1200l. a year. My wife now retired
entirely from business, which she had seen
after for about the half of three days in
the week.

"About four years after this, to my sor-
row, but at the same time pecuniary advan-
tage, the young man, my senior partner,
died, after a few days' illness, from pleu-
risy, brought on by bathing. His consti-
tution was mainly built up on beer, beef,
and tobacco. I, a vegetarian, was never
ill after bathing. This young man was a
martyr to the abuse of stimulants, whom
his foolish doctor encouraged in their use.
I have made my will, and none of my chil-
dren shall inherit a penny if they are not
at the time of my death vegetarians and
total abstainers.

"I had been married about six years,
and had three children," continued the
old vegetarian, "when my warehouse and
all my furniture were totally destroyed by
fire; fortunately the ywere insured for
about 5,000l. As this was another crisis
in my career, I went. to 'the firm,' and
said, 'I now know about as much of my
business as I can learn, and have a large
connection. I am offered credit if I will
embark my capital-8,000%. to open
a business in opposition to yours. But I
do not want to do this, if you will only
give me a liberal salary. I want 450l. a
year, and I will carry on my business in
tools in my leisure hours as before." My
terms were accepted; I was assigned a
separate office, and five clerks were at my
command. Every letter to me was now
addressed esquire; formerly I was only
Mr., at least to the firm. I got my family "We had been so absorbed in business
arms engraved on a seal. I began to since we were married, that we had not for
dress better. I kept three maid-servants ten years taken a seaside holiday; so in
and a page, and lived in a house out of the the summer of 1846 we determined on a
town -a roadside villa, with good veg-yacht voyage to last two months, from
etable garden-bringing my expenses
within the 450l. a year; reserving the
profits of my business for the increase of
my capital.

"The heads of the firm-two brothers paid a visit to Ireland, and coming back a terrific storm arose; they were washed off the deck of the steamer and drowned, leaving in the firm only the junior, the son of the elder brother, a young man of twenty years of age. As his capacity was moderate, and his habits not very regular, the trustees of the two deceased partners, of their own accord, proposed that I should receive 750l. per annum, take the entire charge of the business, and stay an hour longer than hitherto. But after six months, finding that I lost rather than gained by the arrangement, as it encroached on the time I had hitherto devoted to my private business, I plainly told the trustees that I must be taken into partnership, or I would abandon the concern and establish a rival business, which might very seriously damage theirs. They proposed that I should be partner for life, with 1,500l. a year as a first charge on the profits of the business, but should have no right to leave any part of it to my family, but should have twothirds of the profits as surviving partner in case of the death of the present head of the firm without children. A deed was executed to embrace these provisions, and

66

May 1st to July 1st, round the coast of
Ireland. We hired a yacht of fourteen
tons, four men and a boy. My wife and
three eldest children and self went on
board at Liverpool, and we had a most
enjoyable sail until we reached the north-
west coast of Ireland. We landed and
explored many rocky bays, and I collected
many beautiful sea-birds' eggs, and shot
many of the more uncommon of the sea-
fowl, of which I have at present a trophy
of stuffed birds, nine feet long, in my hall.
Wishing to see the wildest part of the
Irish coast, we sailed for the Arran Isles,
and, landing there, spent some days in ex-
amining the curious stones for which these
islands are famous. Some fishermen there
spoke of an isolated rock in the sea, about
a quarter of a mile long, very high, with
a cavern in it, as the haunt of myriads of
sea-fowl, some of species found nowhere
else in the same abundance. With one of
these fishermen as our pilot we reached
the spot. There was a heavy swell round
this island-rock, and we had great diffi-
culty in landing. We determined to anchor
the yacht about half a mile off, and pro-
ceed to the island in the boat with two of
our men. Thinking we might like to spend
the day there, we took with us two bags
of rice, a basket of oranges, some loaves
of bread, some peas and beans for soup,
and utensils and wood for cooking. In
order to afford a seat for the children, a

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tin chest from the cabin, full of a variety | violent that we were hardly able to keep
of provisions, was put in the boat's stern,
and we embarked, my wife expressing a
regret that the provisions had not been
emptied out lest they should make the boat
too heavy. With great difficulty we man-
aged to run the boat into a chasm about
twenty feet wide and one hundred feet
long in the cliff, which was high and very
precipitous. This chasm formed a minia-
ture harbor, where the boat could lie with-
out any danger of being swamped, in deep
water close to the cliff, against which it
was moored to a projecting rock, as to an
artificial quay.
It was a considerable
scramble to get out of the boat and up the
cliff; we just managed it, and landing our
provisions, one of our men made a fire
and acted as cook, while we wandered
over the island, and explored the cave.
It was, in fact, a sort of twin cavern, two
branches having one entrance; that on the
right-hand side was about a hundred and
fifty feet deep, and was not tenanted, as it
had no exit; that on the left hand was a
tunnel of even greater length, and about
forty feet high; it was the nesting-place of
many sea-birds; cormorants, puffins, guille-
mots, razorbills, several species of sea-
gulls, the arctic tern and gannet very
abundant, and a few pairs of the shearwa-
ter; of some sort we took a good many
eggs. We packed baskets with at least
one hundred dozen. I did not shoot, as I
did not like disturbing the birds, they were
so tame, being but little accustomed to the
visits of man. There were some goats on
the island, which we conjectured had swum
ashore from a shipwrecked vessel.

feet on the cliff. I came down, and said
we should be obliged to pass the night
on the island. Accordingly, the sailors
brought out of the boat all we had left in
it, including some shawls, a large fur rug,
and two sails and a quantity of tarpaulin,
which we had intended to sit on had the
ground been damp. Lighting a small
lamp, I made a careful survey of the right-
hand cavern; it was not straight, but
turned at a sharp angle; the floor was dry,
as were also the walls. I collected a heap
of loose dry sand eight or ten feet long by
as many feet wide, and in this I spread the
tarpaulin, and over this some shawls. As
it got dark, myself, wife, and three children
lay down on this extemporized bed, cover-
ing ourselves with the large fur rug. The
wind made a great noise. The sailors lay
down a short distance from us, wrapped
in the sails. The next morning between
five and six we were all up, and I made
an inventory of our provisions. We had
about eight pounds of oatmeal, about the
same quantity of haricot beans, about four-
teen pounds of lentils, about twelve pounds
of maize flour, three pounds of arrowroot,
two pounds of potatoes, a cabbage, four
loaves of bread, and about a dozen oranges.
With economy, we had vegetarian provis-
ions to last a fortnight, if we could get
fresh water -as yet we had found none.
In the cavern where the sea-birds were,
there was a patch of green moss on the
wall, nearly obscuring a deep crack, ex-
tending for some yards into the rock. On
putting my ear to the crack I distinctly
heard water dropping. I tied a towel to a
walking-stick and poked it into the crack,
and pulled out the towel dripping.
dint of probing the rock, I increased the
supply, and at last was enabled to get an
oar into the crack, which being placed
obliquely, acted as a lead to the water,
which now trickled down sufficiently fast to
fill a tin can of a gallon capacity in about
a quarter of an hour. I considered this
providential. We were on this island ten
days, and slept in the same manner.
Dur-
ing the day we kept a sail on an oar at-
tached to the boat's mast, on the highest
part of the island, as a signal of distress.
We saw several vessels, but they did not
come near the island. At last a smack
lay to, and sent a boat to the island, and
in about an hour we were on board the
smack. On the island we adhered strictly
to our vegetarian diet, substituting sea-
fowls' eggs for hens' eggs.*

"This plateau, which was the highest part of the island, was reached by a path ascending about two hundred feet. It was a beautiful emerald meadow bounded by almost precipitous cliffs, which my eldest boy and I climbed up, but my wife declined the ascent. At about five we sat down to our dinner of pea soup, boiled cabbage, bread, haricot beans, batter pudding, and fruit.

"We were seated in the entrance of the cave, when suddenly a storm sprang up. The wind was so violent, that though we sadly wished it we did not deem it prudent to get into our boat, to rejoin the yacht. One of the sailors went on a high part of the island to observe, and soon informed us that the yacht had apparently dragged its anchor, and was fast disappearing.

"We were all in a sad dilemma. Leaving my dinner unfinished, I with my eldest son went up the cliff; the yacht was nowhere to be seen, and the wind was so

By

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Vegetarians usually admit a diet including milk, cheese, butter, and eggs.

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