354 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



Jessie to a country ball. Jessie, though attached to 

 another to whom she was married shortly after, was yet 

 as proud of him as if he were her lover. She intro- 

 duced him to her little circle of friends, young women 

 like herself ; and Walter, who danced par excellence, and 

 was a thorough adept in all the little arts of gallantry, 

 was quite the Adonis of the evening. Some of the lads 

 of the place, however, who were but ill pleased to see 

 the handsome young man of the north more a favourite 

 with their sweethearts than themselves, and carrying 

 away all the luck of the ball, contrived to fasten a quarrel 

 on him, and Walter, who was quite as ready in meeting 

 an enemy as a friend, knocked one of them down. 

 This took place in a kind of ante-room. In an instant 

 he was attacked by four of the party at once, but leaping 

 into a corner of the room, where he could keep them 

 abreast of him, he found abundant employment for them 

 all. I have never seen in a human arm so immense a 

 structure of bone and sinew, his wrist used to remind 

 me of the lower part of a horse's leg. He was fighting 

 on at least equal terms with the four when the sweet- 

 heart of Jessie, an active young fellow, drawn to the 

 place by the noise of the fray, took part with him, and 

 turned the tide in a twinkling. Ever after this night 

 his cousins used to regard him as quite a prodigy. On 

 the day he parted from them the poor little sick girl 

 cried herself into a fever ; and his aunt, ere she could 

 take leave of him, walked with him for more than six 

 miles, standing every few paces to bid him farewell, and 

 then losing heart and going on a little further. Does 

 not all this give you the idea of a man whom one could 

 love very much ? ' 



The rest of the letter is occupied chiefly with details 

 respecting Cousin Walter, which are given in the Schools 



