spoken of hotels with greater disdain.

"You see, the trouble with me is, I ain't got any relations around here.
Now," he added, with the life and eagerness of an inspiration, "if I had a
mother and sister livin' down at the Port, say, I wouldn't go hunting
about for these mean little jobs everywheres. I'd just lay round home, and
wait till something come up big. What I want is a home."

At the instigation of a malignant spirit I asked the homeless orphan, "Why
don't you get married, then?"

He gave me another smile, sadder, fainter, sweeter than before, and said:
"When would you like to see me again, so I could work out this dollar?"

A sudden and unreasonable disgust for the character which had given me so
much entertainment succeeded to my past delight. I felt, moreover, that I
had bought the right to use some frankness with the veteran, and I said to
him: "Do you know now, I shouldn't care if I _never_ saw you again?"

I can only conjecture that he took the confidence in good part, for he did
not appear again after that.




A PEDESTRIAN TOUR.


Walking for walking's sake I do not like. The diversion appears to me one
of the most factitious of modern enjoyments; and I cannot help looking