 traveller; and having done so, stepped in at once, highly satisfied
with everything he had observed.
    »Now, then!« said a shrill female voice the instant Sam thrust his head in
at the door, »what do you want, young man?«
    Sam looked round in the direction whence the voice proceeded. It came from a
rather stout lady of comfortable appearance, who was seated beside the
fire-place in the bar, blowing the fire to make the kettle boil for tea. She was
not alone; for on the other side of the fire-place, sitting bolt upright in a
high-backed chair, was a man in thread-bare black clothes, with a back almost as
long and stiff as that of the chair itself, who caught Sam's most particular and
especial attention at once.
    He was a prim-faced, red-nosed man, with a long, thin countenance, and a
semi-rattlesnake sort of eye - rather sharp, but decidedly bad. He wore very
short trousers, and black-cotton stockings, which, like the rest of his apparel,
were particularly rusty. His looks were starched, but his white neckerchief was
not, and its long limp ends straggled over his closely-buttoned waistcoat in a
very uncouth and unpicturesque fashion. A pair of old, worn beaver gloves, a
broad-brimmed hat, and a faded green umbrella, with plenty of whalebone sticking
through the bottom, as if to counterbalance the want of a handle at the top, lay
on a chair beside him, and, being disposed in a very tidy and careful manner,
seemed to imply that the red-nosed man, whoever he was, had no intention of
going away in a hurry.
    To do the red-nosed man justice, he would have been very far from wise if he
had entertained any such intention; for, to judge from all appearances, he must
have been possessed of a most desirable circle of acquaintance, if he could have
reasonably expected to be more comfortable anywhere else. The fire was blazing
brightly under the influence of the bellows, and the kettle was singing gaily
under the influence of both. A small tray of tea-things was arranged on the
table, a plate of hot buttered toast was gently simmering before the fire, and
the red-nosed man himself was busily engaged in converting a large slice of
bread into the same agreeable edible, through the instrumentality of a long
brass toasting-fork. Beside him stood a glass of reeking hot pineapple rum and
water, with a slice of lemon
