ABOUT BUYING A HORSE. 37 



ask him " Are you the man who lent me his tarpaulin and 

 jacket ? " 



Happy Thoiiglit. — Be just before you are generous. 



Truth compels him to own that he is not the man I took 

 him for. Then, I explain to him, he, personally, has no 

 claim upon me. He admits the justice of my remark, and, 

 catching sight of the Captain, I fancy, who, like " the sweet 

 little cherub" in the nautical ballad, is perched up aloft, 

 keeping a watchful eye on poor Jack 



By the way, "a cherub perchaV anywhere is a grand 



instance of poetic license. \Note. — To go into this thoroughly 

 in Typical Developments, VoL X., under " C" for "Cherub," 

 Division A., "Artistic Theology."] 



the kindly sailor is gradually absorbed into the deep 



shadow, and, like a baffled spirit of evil, disappears in the 

 gloom. 



Then the real man appears. Quite dramatic. There is 

 an Eye, too, from somewhere above on him, as he appears 

 shuffling and uneasy, and immediately on receiving the 

 money (two strange coins, belonging to no particular nation, 

 and given me in change with some francs at Boulogne), he, 

 too, glides away, and vanishes. He seemed perfectly satis- 

 fied before he vanished. Perhaps I may have given him two 

 rare coins, invaluable to a collector. At all events, he is, 

 evidently, a collector. 



One other passenger lands with me : a long man, in a 

 long coat, inclined to be confidential. I am not. Lonely 

 place, the harbour. No one in sight. Large Hotel near at 



