the world. The very furniture of the
room seemed to mellow and deepen in its tone; the ceiling and walls looked
blacker and more highly polished, the curtains of a ruddier red; the fire burnt
clear and high, and the crickets in the hearth-stone chirped with a more than
wonted satisfaction.
    There were present two, however, who showed but little interest in the
general contentment. Of these, one was Barnaby himself, who slept, or, to avoid
being beset with questions, feigned to sleep, in the chimney-corner; the other,
Hugh, who, sleeping too, lay stretched upon the bench on the opposite side, in
the full glare of the blazing fire.
    The light that fell upon this slumbering form, showed it in all its muscular
and handsome proportions. It was that of a young man, of a hale athletic figure,
and a giant's strength, whose sunburnt face and swarthy throat, overgrown with
jet black hair, might have served a painter for a model. Loosely attired, in the
coarsest and roughest garb, with scraps of straw and hay - his usual bed -
clinging here and there, and mingling with his uncombed locks, he had fallen
asleep in a posture as careless as his dress. The negligence and disorder of the
whole man, with something fierce and sullen in his features, gave him a
picturesque appearance, that attracted the regards even of the Maypole customers
who knew him well, and caused Long Parkes to say that Hugh looked more like a
poaching rascal to-night than ever he had seen him yet.
    »He's waiting here, I suppose,« said Solomon, »to take Mr. Haredale's
horse.«
    »That's it, sir,« replied John Willet. »He's not often in the house, you
know. He's more at his ease among horses than men. I look upon him as a animal
himself.«
    Following up this opinion with a shrug that seemed meant to say, »we can't
expect everybody to be like us,« John put his pipe into his mouth again, and
smoked like one who felt his superiority over the general run of mankind.
    »That chap, sir,« said John, taking it out again after a time, and pointing
at him with the stem, »though he's got all his faculties about him - bottled up
and corked down, if I may say so, somewheres or another -«
    »Very good!« said Parkes, nodding his head. »A very good