This was an unexpected meeting indeed; and confidering the place, and all the circumftances belonging to the fcene, a thing more strange and affecting never came in my way. Our pleasure at this meeting was very great, and when the most affectionate falutations were over, my friend Price proceeded in the following manner. Often have I remembered you fince we parted, and exclufive of the Greek and Englifh plays we have acted together at Sheridan's fchool, in which you acquired no fmall applaufe, I have frequently thought of our frolickfome rambles in vacation time, and the merry dancings we had at Mother Red-Cap's in Back-Lane; the hurling matches we have played at Dolphin's Barn, and the cakes and ale we used to have at the Organboufe on Arbor-bill. These things have often occurred to my mind: but little did I think we should ever meet again on Stainmore-bills. What ftrange things does time produce! It has taken me from a town-life, to live on the most folitary part of the globe :-And it has brought you to journey where never man I believe ever thought of travelling before. So it is, (I replied), and stranger things, dear Jack, may happen yet before our eyes are closed: why I journey this untravelled way, I will inform you by-and by: by; when you have told me by what strange means you came to dwell in this remote and filent vale. That you fhall know, (Mr. Price faid) very foon, as foon as we have. eaten a morfel of fomething or other which my dear Martha has prepared against my return. Here it comes, a fowl, bacon, and greens, and as fine, I will anfwer, as London market could yield. Let us fit down, my friend, and God bless us and our meat. Down then we fat immediately to our difh, and most excellent every thing was. The focial goodness of this fond couple added greatly to the pleasure of the meal, and with mirth and friendship we eat up our capon, our bacon, and our greens.. When we had done, Price brought in pipes and tobacco, and a fresh tankard of his admirable ale. Liften now (he faid) to my story, and then I will hearken to yours.. The ftory of 23. When I left you at Sheridan's fchool, my remove was. from Ireland to Barbadoes, to become a rich uncle's heir, and I got by. my Indian airing a hundred thousand pounds. There I left the bones of my mother's brother, after I had lived two years in that burning place, and from thence proceeded to London, to fpend what an honeft. laborious man man had long toiled to fave. But I had not been above three months in the capital of England, when it came into my head to .pafs fome time in France, and with a girl I kept made hafte to the French metropolis. There I lived at a grand rate, and took from the French opera-house another agreed The Gaul and the Briton were both extreme fine girls, and agreed fo well together, that I kept them both in one house. I thought myself fuperlatively happy in having fuch a. brace of females, and spared no cost in procuring them all the finery and pleasures that Paris and London could yield. I had a furnished house in both these cities, and with an expenfive equipage went backwards and forwards. In four years time I spent a great: deal of money; and as I had loft large fums at play, and these two in the end to rob me, and retire with the money, where I should never discover them, I found myself in very middling circumstances, and had not fix hundred pounds. left in the fourth year from my uncle's death. How to difpofe of this and myself was now the question. What fhall I do. (was my deliberation) to fecure bread and quiet? Many a thoughtful hour this gave me, and at length I determined to purchase a little annuity. But before this could be effected, I went down to Westmoreland, on an an information I had received, that my two ladies were at Appleby with other names, and on my money appeared as women of fortune. But this journey was to no purpose, and I was preparing to return to London, when my wife you faw at the head of the table a while ago, came by chance in my way, and pleafed me fo well with her good understanding, face, and person, that I refolved to marry her, if she would have me, and give her the management of my five hundred pounds on a farm, as fhe was a farmer's daughter, and could manage one to good advantage. Her father was lately dead, and this little mountain farm fhe continued to occupy: therefore nothing could be more to my purpose, if I could prevail on her to make me her husband, and with fome difficulty fhe did, to my unspeakable: felicity. She had no money worth mentioning: but her houfe was pretty and comfortable, and her land had grain and cattle; and as I threw into her lap my five hundred pounds, a little before we were married, to be by her difpofed of and managed, according to her pleasure, fhe foon made fome good improvements and additions, and by her fine understanding, fweet temper, and every Chriftian virtue, continues to render my life fo completely happy, fo joyous and delightful, that I would not change my part ner ner and condition for one of the first quality and greatest fortune. In her I have every thing I could wish for in a wife and a woman, and the makes it the fole study and pleasure of her life to crown me every day with the highest fatisfactions and comforts. Two years have I lived with her on thefe wild mountains, and in that time I have not had one dull or painful minute, but in thinking that I may lofe her, and be the wretched furvivor. That thought does fometimes wound me.-In fum, my friend, we are the happiest of wedded mortals, and on this fmall, remote farm, live in a state of bliss to be envied. This proves that happiness does not flow from riches only; but that, where pure and perfect love, ftrict virtue, and unceafing industry, are united in the conjugal ftate, they can make the Stainmore mountains a paradise to mortals, in peace and little. But it is not only happiness in this world that I have acquired by this admirable woman, but life eternal. You remember, my friend, what a wild and wicked one I was when a school-boy; and as Barbadoes of all parts of the globe is no place to improve a man's morals in, I returned from thence to Europe as debauched a fcelerate as ever offended heaven by blafphemy and illegal gratifications. Even my loffes and approaching poverty |