the servant in the mean time being instructed
to take the sheets from the bed in which I was
to sleep, and put additional blankets on it. I
got to bed with all convenient haste, and had
not been long between the blankets, when the
landlady's remedies began to have the desired
effect. A profuse perspiration, which in all
probability saved me from a violent fever, broke
out all over me and lasted for several hours.
About midnight I fell into a sound sleep, from
which I only awoke at eleven o'clock next day,
and then I felt quite restored.

I stayed in the inn all that day, and when
going to bed at night intimated to the landlady
that I would settle with her then, for I
wished to be on the road at an early hour the
following morning, as it was my intention to
walk to London without further stoppages.
"You had better go by train," she said, when I
had told her my intentions, "and not run the
risk of knocking yourself up again." In order
that I might not seem to be disregarding her
advice from obstinacy, I hinted that after paying
her I feared I would not be able to afford going
by train. Upon hearing this, she not only
insisted upon my letting her bill stand over until
I should get into collar, but even offered to
lend me money to pay my fare to London. "I
couldn't afford to lose the money," she said, "and
I wouldn't lend it to every one, but you seem
to be a decent, well-spoken lad, and you're fresh
from home, and I've lads of my own who'll soon
have to go out in the world, and for their sake
I wouldn't see any tidy young fellow in
difficulties for the sake of a few shillings, if I
could help him. Besides," she concluded,
with a smile, "I don't think that you
would wrong any one who trusted you." I
fervently assured her, though not exactly in the
language of the poet, that even if I had a heart
for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure her.
I started for London by the first train on
the following morning, and soon got work in
the great city. In a few weeks I settled the
bill of the warm-hearted landlady, accompanying
the money with a present of a "dress-piece,"
as a token that I had not forgotten the
motherly kindness I had received at her hands.
This present she accepted in the spirit in which
it was given, though I subsequently ascertained
that, owing to my taste in colours being of a
decidedly florid order, she was unable to make
any use of it. She observed, when afterwards
speaking to me on the subject, that it was a
little too flaming for a woman of her years and
figure.

My second tramp, though it lasted for five
weeks, was much pleasanter than my first, chiefly
owing to the circumstances that it took place
during the summer, and that I had for a travelling
companion a tramp so experienced that
tramping might with him be almost said to be a
profession. He was a perfect master of roadcraft,
and having before been over many of the
roads along which we passed, was often
acquainted with short cuts that saved several miles
in the course of a day's march. He had a practical,
if not a scientific, knowledge of physiognomy,
never mistaking his man in asking for
a "lift." To him, the outsides of houses
presented indications of the dispositions of their
inhabitants, and he would unhesitatingly "spot"
the farm-houses at which by asking for a drink
of water you would be sure to get a drink
of beer or milk. He carried a small kit of
tools with him, and was noted for his skill in
repairing beer engines and other machinery
pertaining to the public-house business. In
company with such a guide, philosopher, and
friend, as this, life on the road was comparatively
pleasant, and when, after tramping through
a great part of Yorkshire and Lancashire, we at
last got into collar again in one of the large
towns of the latter county, it was witlh a feeling
of regret that I once more "buckled to" at the
little-varying routine of workshop life.

When a working man on tramp arrives in
any town in which men with whom he has
formerly "worked mates" are employed, his old
shopmates vie with each other who shall be
kindest to him. When, by their invitation, he
goes to meet them coming from their work,
there is a friendly rivalry as to which of
them shall take him home to share their
meal, and when at night they take him out
with them, they display the utmost delicacy in
seeing that he is allowed to bear no part of any
expenses that may be incurred. If any of them
have influence in the establishment in which
they are employed, they exert it to the utmost
in trying to get work for their old mate, and if
he do not obtain employment in the town, if he be
very hard up, they will make a subscription among
themselves, and sometimes among their fellow-
workmen, to help him on the road. In such towns
as Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool, and
more especially in the London district, a workman
on tramp will, if he is tolerably well known
in the trade, and if he have, when in collar, shown
a disposition to assist those who were out,
often be kept among his former shopmates, or by
those whom in his day he has assisted, until
such time as he gets work in the district.
Trade must be very dull indeed if in the large
towns a man who has friends in the trade, on
the look-out for work for him, does not get
into employment in the course of a few weeks.
When a man who has been a considerable length
of time on the road, gets into work again, the
kindness and consideration of his fellow-workmen
still attend him and do him good service.
They will lend him their best tools, and "pitch
in" to their own work in order to be able to
lend him a hand with his, until he has recovered
from the effects of his tramp, and got into the
ways of the shop. Any one who attempted
to "horse" a man fresh from the road, would
be scouted by his fellow-craftsmen.* But for

* To horse a man, is for one of two men who are
engaged on precisely similar pieces of work to make
extraordinary exertions in order to work down the
other man. This is sometimes done simply to see
what kind of a workman a new man may be, but
often with the much less creditable motive of injuring
a fellow-workman in the estimation of an
employer; with the exception, perhaps, of a skulking
fellow who tries to avoid doing his fair share of
a joint job, there is no man more despised of working
men than the one who tries to horse another for a
selfish or spiteful purpose.