rustic piety, of a most fearless, and, what the Germans call, a
self-standing nature--for solitude or society came all alike to John.
You would as soon expect a pine-tree to be out of sorts, as his hard,
honest face, and muscular frame. John was never sick, or disturbed in
any way; he performed his own domestic duties with a neatness and
regularity known to few housekeepers, and was a faithful and most
uncompromising guardian of the toll-bar. I well remember how our young
imaginations were impressed with the fact, that no man could pass,
without, as it were, paying tribute to him; and George IV., though he
appeared on the coppers with which we bought apples, cast by no means
so mighty a shadow on our minds as English John. Before this glory
waned, I was removed from his neighbourhood, being sent to cheer the
heart and secure the legacy of a certain uncle who was a writer to the
Signet in Edinburgh, and believed to be in profitable practice and
confirmed bachelorhood. The worthy man has long ago married his
landlady's daughter, and been blessed with a family sufficient to fill
a church-pew. My own adventures--how I grew from garment to garment,
how I became a law-student, and at length a writer myself--have little
to do with the present narrative, and are therefore spared the reader
in detail; but the first startling intelligence I received from home
was, that English John had resigned his important office at the
toll-house, and gone, nobody knew whither!

Years had passed; my professional studies were finished, and I had
occasion to visit a Fife laird near the East Neuk. The gentleman was
notable for his taste in kitchen-gardening; and having a particularly
fine bed of Jerusalem artichokes which I must see, he conducted me to
the scene of his triumphs, when, hard at work with the rake and hoe,
whom should I find as the much esteemed gardener, but my old friend
English John! His hair had grown quite gray, and his look strangely