carry his point, 'I shall be Robert Vance.'

'And I shall be George Vance,' cried John, 'the only original George

Vance! Rally round the only original!'

Repairing as well as they were able the disorder of their clothes, the

Finsbury brothers returned to Browndean by a circuitous route in quest

of luncheon and a suitable cottage. It is not always easy to drop at

a moment's notice on a furnished residence in a retired locality; but

fortune presently introduced our adventurers to a deaf carpenter, a man

rich in cottages of the required description, and unaffectedly eager to

supply their wants. The second place they visited, standing, as it did,

about a mile and a half from any neighbours, caused them to exchange a

glance of hope. On a nearer view, the place was not without depressing

features. It stood in a marshy-looking hollow of a heath; tall trees

obscured its windows; the thatch visibly rotted on the rafters; and the

walls were stained with splashes of unwholesome green. The rooms were

small, the ceilings low, the furniture merely nominal; a strange chill

and a haunting smell of damp pervaded the kitchen; and the bedroom

boasted only of one bed.

Morris, with a view to cheapening the place, remarked on this defect.

'Well,' returned the man; 'if you can't sleep two abed, you'd better

take a villa residence.'

'And then,' pursued Morris, 'there's no water. How do you get your

water?'

'We fill THAT from the spring,' replied the carpenter, pointing to a big

barrel that stood beside the door. 'The spring ain't so VERY far off,

after all, and it's easy brought in buckets. There's a bucket there.'

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