THE MISERIES OF A TEND-EREARED MAN. 139 



some dozen tortoise-shell kittens, her progeny, which had been 

 engulfed in a bucket of water on the preceding evening. Here I 

 contrived to wile away the time, in the hope of enjoying one 

 happy hour of silence, which indeed I might be said to enjoy, 

 when the "sound of a church going bell" in the immediate 

 vicinity ceased from its labo\^rs, which it did during the intervals 

 of three peals of half an hour each. The ticking of a clock 

 outside the door, was a source of temporary annoyance, but this 

 I remedied by slipping the weight chain from off the wheel on to 

 its axle. Night came, and with it the quietness of sleep. I had 

 a heavenly dream of a "world without sound/' 



I awoke on Monday morning, without any head-ache, and full 

 of that exhilaration which is always the result of undisturbed 

 repose; " thank heaven," I exclaimed "I have, at last, found a 

 silent resting place," 



My landlady entered, and I greeted her with a smile, talked 

 kindly of the weather ; but in as few words as possible, and I 

 positively fancied myself ten years younger. O I the evanescence 

 of sublunary happiness; in an instant I felt a sudden and power- 

 ful shock; to what may I compare it? perhaps the violence of 

 electricity, and the endurance of apoplexy. The unremitting, 

 unrelenting rattle of a fast-going bell pealed out its voice of discord 

 from a shed above my window. Never did a poor condemned 

 malefactor sadden more at the last sound of warning, than I did 

 at the hubbub overhead ; but alas it was succeeded by one of a 

 more fearful character; the door of my room opened on the stairs, 

 and, on a sudden, the latter seemed to be suffering under the 

 throes of an earthquake, and speaking with the voice of a volcano. 

 But mystery soon gave place to reality ; for, on venturing to look, 

 I was astounded at the appearance of some hundred and fifty 

 boys, who were proceeding to their school-room, which was 

 situated directly over my parlour. To be sure the noise on the 

 stairs was of no long continuance, but it was replaced by a most 

 uproarious clatter of busy feet over head, which produced an 

 unending din. 



My happy genius soon found a palliative to my woes ; on 

 enquiry, I found that the school closed at four, so I hied me away 

 to the fields, and there found the quiet which I love, here I re- 

 mained until dinner-time; on my return to my lodgings, I found 

 that the boys had been dismissed and the house was in a state of 

 complete tranquillity. Dinner, and my glass of brandy and 

 water, provoked an inclination for 3 doze, but this was disturbed 



