"Well, Jacobs," said he, with sudden familiarity, "you seem uncommon
pleased, and I am content. I would rather have gone to California; but
any place is better than England. Laugh those who win. I shall breathe
a delicious climate; you will make yourself as happy as a prince, that
is to say, miserable, upon fifteen shillings and two colds a week; my
sobriety and industry will realize a fortune under a smiling sun. Let
chaps that never saw the world, and the beautiful countries there are
in it, snivel at leaving this island of fogs and rocks and taxes and
nobs, the rich man's paradise, the poor man's--I never swear, it's
vulgar."

While he was crushing his captors with his eloquence, George and Susan
came together from the house; George's face betrayed wonder and
something akin to horror.

"A thief!" cried he. "Have I taken the hand of a thief?"

"It is a business like any other," said Robinson deprecatingly.

"If you have no shame I have; I long to be gone now."

"George!" whined the culprit, who, strange to say, had become attached
to the honest young farmer. "Did ever I take tithe of you? You have
got a silver candle cup, a heavenly old coffee-pot, no end of spoons
double the weight those rogues the silversmiths make them now; they
are in a box under your bed in your room," added he, looking down.
"Count them, they are all right; and Miss Merton, your bracelet, the
gold one with the cameo: I could have had it a hundred times. Miss
Merton, ask him to shake hands with me at parting. I am so fond of