do it for you-wish I could do it all by myself. Julia dear, put your hand into Peregrine's-only think! husband and wife! Well, well, I will sanction-do you sanction it, Julia?"

"Yes-yes," faltered Julia. "I do-dear mamma, kind, kind."

"No-no-I can do nothing," continued Mrs. Poggleton; "you know I can do nothing-so don't rest upon me, my dear children. In time, perhaps, something may be done; but your papa is so dreadfully irritable; I don't know how I can broach the subject to him, unless he recovers very much; but I wish to do my best-depend upon it I will. But only think Mrs. Peregrine Pultuney-how strange it will sound. Well, well, something may be done perhaps; but I don't know-your allowances are so very small-scarce enough to light up a house. Never mind though-I do sanction it. Time will show; you must make up your mind to part-and to wait too-two very hard things--but they must be borne though. I think Poggleton wants me, so I shall leave you two children together."

Having said this, Mrs. Poggleton flitted away, and, as a necessary consequence, Peregrine Pultuney turned round to ascertain whether he could ratify the contract, without any body seeing him, with a tender salute upon the spot. The result of the inquiry, however, was very different from what he anticipated; for instead of kissing the soft cheek of his pretty cousin, he dropped her hand, rushed for

ward, and in less time than it takes to write these few lines descriptive of the movement, had doubled his fist, clenched his teeth, and knocked a tolerably stout sailor right down the main hatch-way, without uttering a single word in explanation of the very unceremonious act.

CHAPTER VI.

In which the strange Conduct of Peregrine Pultuney at the End of the last Chapter is accounted for; and the Poggletons cross the Surf at Madras.

Ir will, we are sure, have been taken for granted that Peregrine Pultuney, when he "got leave to sea," and acted upon the leave he had got, did not trust himself, out of condition as he was, to the mercy of the elements and the cock-roaches, without taking with him that invaluable domestic Peer Khan, in the capacities of nurse, butler, &c. Besides this he had procured the services of a Madras man, by name Ram Sammy, who, however was discovered in a very little time to be as big a rascal as any in existence, having regaled himself, during the first week after Peregrine had gone to bed, with the contents of a six-dozen chest, consisting of some very choice old Madeira, and several bottles of liqueurs, which that young gentleman had taken with him on board, in order that he might be well provided with creature comforts,

of a good quality, should the captain's stores prove inferior to his own. As, however, a considerable portion of these good things went to the nightly inebriation of Ram Sammy, and the remainder of them were left behind, when Peregrine went on shore, it would have been equally well, all things considered, if the precaution had never been taken; but as it was impossible that this should have been known before-hand, the forethought of our hero is worthy of the praise which we, as just historians, bestow upon it.

But to return to Peer Khan; the good Mahommedan-whose gratitude was truly perennial, tended his beloved master on board the Leander, with a patience and constancy and devotedness, in which the best Christian could not have surpassed him. He was indeed most useful; for being thoroughly acquainted with the routine of board ship life, and most watchful after his master's interests, he was enabled to procure for Peregrine the best of every thing that the ship supplied, as speedily as it could be procured by a person always on the alert, and not particularly ceremonious, where his own sahib's welfare was concerned. He could jostle too, and dispute, and assert his claims, after other fashions than the most polite, and it may truly be said, that a more zealous myrmidon never tracked the footsteps of a hero than did Peer Khan follow those of ours. The man Friday and Corporal Trim were nothing to him.

But Peer Khan had his troubles, as do all natives in the midst of Europeans, for the said Europeans (by which name we mean Englishmen) are certainly the most uncourteous and the most ungenerous set of people in the world to strangers. Not, however, that Peer Khan was the only native of India on board the Leander, for there were some five or six others, including the Madrassey, all of indifferent character and pretensions, who, on shore, would never have been tolerated in any higher rank than that of a mussauljee (lamp-lighter), and were, for want of better employment, accompanying some gentlemen to Madras. For these men, Peer Khan entertained a most sovereign contempt, and was rarely or ever to be seen in their society; indeed he kept himself pretty well aloof from every body except his master and his master's relations, to whom he was eminently useful. The cuddy servants in vain attempted to impose duties on the sturdy Mahommedan, which he knew did not legitimately appertain to him; and he despised his fellow-countrymen who were simple enough to be imposed upon in this manHe was not going to clean the ship's plate, and the ship's crockery, and the ship's glass, for the lazy Europeans whose business it was to perform these duties, and Peregrine Pultuney very properly supported him in resisting these aggressions on every occasion.

ner.

Peer Khan, it may easily be supposed, was therefore not much of a favourite amongst the ship's ser