"_And_ a butler with a poultice round his neck and whiskers like a
mop-head.

"_And_ a silver tub full of rose-water to sit in and read the
_Morning Post_.

"_And_ a green-house full of peaches--and green peas all the year
round.

"_And_ a pew in the church warmed with biling eau de Cologne.

"_And_ a carpet a foot thick.

"_And_ a piano-forte in every blessed room in the house. But this
island is the Dead Sea to a poor man."

He then, diverging from the rhetorical to the metropolitan style,
proposed to his friend "to open one eye. That will show you this hole
you are in is all poor hungry arable ground. You know you can't work
it to a profit." (George winced.) "No! steal, borrow, or beg 500
pounds. Carry out a cargo of pea-jackets and fourpenny bits to swap
for gold-dust, a few tools, a stout heart, and a light pair of--'Oh,
no; we never mention them; their name is never heard'--and we'll soon
fill both pockets with the shiney in California."

All this Mr. Robinson delivered with a volubility to which Berkshire
had hitherto been a stranger.

"A crust of bread in England before buffalo beef in California," was