PROVIDENCE. 59 



gret the loss of the carriage of the 

 shrimps, which had always formed the 

 staple of the coach's earnings. Now being 

 on the best of terms with all the pro- 

 prietors, and having myself become one 

 by working a stage, I considered my 

 position as established, and I felt myself 

 justified in making an alteration in my 

 condition I had long and earnestly con- 

 templated. 



And, first, 1 must revert to an awful 

 and sudden visitation of Providence, 

 which, distressing and lamentable as it 

 was, opened the way to my ultimately 

 revisiting St. Albans. I had finished my 

 day's work in London, and had gone 

 into the down office, as I always did, 

 to enquire who or what there was booked 

 for the morning, when the guard of the 

 Liverpool, who generally arrived about 

 half-an-hour before me, and was standing 

 talking to the book-keeper, turned round 

 when he saw me, and said 



