A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 19 



money would have entirely disappeared before 

 Friday, leaving nothing wherewith to reach Calais 

 and Bourbourg. 



Wretched beyond measure, and not knowing what 

 to do, I threw myself down upon my bed, and then 

 recollected having heard that when in trouble 

 nothing afforded such consolation as reading the 

 Bible! I at once extracted from my trunk one 

 which my mother had put there, and proceeded to 

 try the experiment ; with what result I cannot say. 

 One thing, however, became clear to me, I must 

 find some quicker way of reaching Calais than 

 waiting for Friday's steamer. The landlord of the 

 " Cross Keys" was called into consultation, and I learnt 

 from him that a coach started from his office, at eight 

 o'clock that evening, which would reach Dover early 

 next morning. This was a much more costly route 

 than the one by which I had intended to go, but 

 there was no other way open to me that would not 

 cost more still. In due time I was mounted on the 

 top of the coach, which had scarcely cleared the 

 suburbs of London when heavy rain began to fall, 

 and long before we reached Canterbury I was soaked 

 to the skin. We had a short delay at the posting 

 house at that place, where we hoped to enjoy the 

 luxury of hot coffee. But everywhere the fates 

 pursued. We entered the inn only to find the 

 waiting woman had overslept herself, and was at 

 that moment applying a match to a large black coal 

 fire, which altogether declined to be lighted, whilst 



