252 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



rough, with no paint on it, and no lock to it; there 

 were windows looking towards the street, with no 

 bolts to them ; in fact, there was no nothing except 

 the bare walls ; everything was open to the public. 

 Our portmanteaux served us as wardrobes, and 

 except two or three rough wooden chairs, and 

 some boards put on trestles, we had nothing that 

 could be called furniture, and the whole affair would 

 hardly have answered the description of " These 

 elegant and well-furnished apartments," &c. which 

 in many cases stand for fleas and bugs, and creeping 

 things innumerable. We, however, were all young 

 and healthy, our teeth were good, our appetites were 

 as good, and with our pipes and our materials after 

 our day's fishing, we were as merry as sand boys, 

 and though our beds were a bit hard we slept like 

 tops. The only drawback to our happiness was the 

 host of beggars that besieged the front door as soon 

 as the brick that kept it from blowing open during 

 the night was taken from behind it ; for as soon as 

 we began to show any signs of life every beggar in 

 the town began to come into life too, and the dirt 

 and filth of the old crones that then pestered us 

 unfortunate sons of Isaac Walton, who, by the way, 

 wrote the stupidest of all stupid books that ever 



