324 REiMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



-were satisfactory, I wrote a letter to his donkey, in- 

 closing another shilling, as follows, which letter she 

 was enjoined to read to him. I sent it by post to 

 him, " for his donkey." She was to tell him " that 

 the man who helped them out of the mud had sent 

 her a shilHng for her master, with which she was to 

 redeem the price he had paid for her, and then serve 

 him all the better, because she was free. She was to 

 tell him, that the man had watched how kind he was 

 to lier ; that he had never beaten her, nor used any 

 ill lano'uao'e : and that, so long as he continued kind 

 and good in his general conduct, he should always 

 have a hearty dinner given to him on Christmas Day. 

 By what had befallen him now, he was to remember 

 tliat there was always an eye upon the actions of 

 every man's life, though that eye was invisible to all ; 

 and that a good action was sure to meet with its re- 

 ward." Having delivered myself of the above sermon, 

 I sio-ned the letter " Pilot's Friend." Of this I heard 

 no more, when, as I was going into the forest with 

 my friend and old hunting companion, Mr. Lindsay, 

 to look for a deer, we met the blind man, donkey, 

 cart, and child. I stopped him, and asked if liis don- 

 key had received a letter, and he replied in the af- 

 firmative ; and when asked if he knew "the man" 

 who helped him out of the mud, gave him the money, 

 and wrote the letter, he said, " Yes, sir ; it was you," 

 mentioning my name. Having asked him hoAV, blind 

 as he was, he had come to that conclusion, he replied, 

 " that putting it all together, first and last, he 

 thought it could be nobody else but me." A few 

 words followed this, but as they were not compli- 

 mentary to the activity of the resident gentry as to 

 pushing the carts of poor men through the mud, the 

 reader will permit me to omit tliem. 



