690 THE AUTHOR'S KENT-DAY. 



" It's resolved," said the youth, " I shall have a run ; and then 

 how I'll astonish Mother Jones !" 



'* Mother Jones ! indeed," said mine hostess, indignantly, " Mo- 

 ther Jones ! but Mother Jones will put a stop to your run, young 

 gentleman." The soliloquy ceased we listened, and heard the win- 

 dow thrown up. " There goes my goods into the yard/' said the old 

 lady ; " but he shall take a voyage for it, the rascal ; I'll teach him 

 to call me, Mother Jones, and chuck my Whitney blankets into the 

 mud ! " A rustling noise was heard, and my landlady, in a guise that 

 would have become a great grandmama bacchante, rushed forward, 

 as her lodger, opening his door, exultingly exclaimed, " And now 

 I'm off!" 



" No you a'nt, tho' no you a'nt!" she vociferated, catching him 

 fast in an embrace, that her prisoner would have pitched himself 

 from his window to obtain from one of the sex gifted with an inverse 

 ratio of temptation. " Where's my rent, mister? and where's my 

 bedding ? them ere good Russia sheets, and Whitney blankets ! Oh, 

 you willain ! you willain ! " 



" Your sheets and blankets !" cried the youngster, evidently taken 

 aback, and endeavouring to escape from her bear -like hug. " What 

 do you mean, woman ? let me go." 



" Not till I gets my property," said Mrs. Jones, 



" If you mean your rent," answered her prisoner, " I promise 



you " 



t( Ah, I've had promises enough," replied the inexorable dame ; 

 " where's my property, you willain?" 



" Damn your property ; let me go," rejoined the lodger, as he 

 shook her off. I then made my appearance " I'm happy to see a 

 reasonable being," said the young gentleman, as he approached me ; 

 " pray, can you explain to me, what is meant by this strange con- 

 duct?" 



" Why, sir," I said, after quieting Mrs. Jones, " this good lady has 

 some idea, not altogether unwarranted, it seems, that you were about 

 to leave her house, and in company with her bedding." 



" To leave her house, and in company with her bedding I" he said, 

 in evident amazement, ff I don't understand you, sir I certainly was 

 about to go out, as she knows I always do at this time ; but what, for 

 God's sake, was I to do with her bedding?" 



" Do with it !" cried Mr. Jones, " why, what did we hear you just 

 now say about your uncle ? eh ! what, you're diskivered, are you ? " 

 " My uncle ! why, I believe, I said I should apply to him, to enable 

 me to satisfy you." 



" Oh, then, you confesses it ! " said Mrs. Jones, et didn't you say, 

 sir, as my sheets would fetch sommat ? " 



" Good God ! is it possible," cried the young man, " that you can 

 suppose I meant to rob you of your sheets ? I meant my own sheets, 

 the sheets of the work I am engaged on/' 



" Oh ! ah, I dare say," answered she ; " but we knows the work 

 you was engaged on didn't you say you'd take the blankets, 'cause 

 the pillows were too much used ? I knows they warn't new ; but they 



