her shamefully, and created such a disturbance
as to get into prison. He was at that time
"doing" a month in the jail at Chelmsford.  I
never saw Scottie afterwards. Dick and I
walked on, that Monday morning, until about
eleven o'clock, at a pretty good pace. We then
stole some potatoes from a field, and having
kindled a fire with some wood by the roadside,
roasted or baked them, and Dick begged some
salt. After that, we walked on until about two
o'clock, when a fellow coming on behind us got
into conversation with us.

This man was very young and very simple,
and had been doing some labouring work a few
miles distant, and was on his way to London.
He said he would like to accompany us, as we
were going that way. We told him that, not
having had much to eat that day, we would be
glad if he would pay for a little. He said he
had three shillings in his pocket, and didn't
mind standing bread and cheese.

At the first inn the man got us the food,
and Dick, having called me outside, suggested
that we should "nail" the cash. The young
man had a small bundle, in which were a
shirt and other old rags, and Dick told him
confidentially that it would be safer if he tied
his money in a corner of this bundle. The
youug man acquiescing, gave the remainder of
it, two shillings and fourpence, to Dick to wrap
up. Dick tied the fourpence in a knot of one
corner of the handkerchief and kept the two
shillings. Having done so, he placed the bundle on
the table, saying, " Now it's safe."  The man feeling
tired, put the bundle under his head as a pillow,
and said he would "do a snooze."  In a few
minutes Dick gave me the signal, and we speedily
put half a dozen miles between us and the man
we had robbed. I often think about this incident,
and what rascals we were. Dick, during
the time we walked along the road, told me many
incidents of his life. He had been in nearly every
jail around and in London, and could tell off on
his fingers the pudding and meat days. He was
deeply in love with a certain lady in Flowery
Dean-street, and of this damsel he was never
tired of talking. I asked him, in consideration
of his glowing accounts of a thieving life,
would he take me as a pupil? He said, "Now,
look here, yer a youngster and don't know
nothin'. You would be a continual trouble to
me if I took you; besides, suppose you got
nabbed, wouldn't yer in your cell curse me for
ever leading you on? I know yer would. The
first time as ever I robbed a cove, which was at
Kingston (I come from near there), was of a
pinchbeck watch and six bob, and the fellow
that led me to do it I have allers cursed and
allers shall. You may think, by hearing me
talk, that thieving is a easy game, but it ain't.
I wish I knew how to get out of it easy."

By dint of hard walking we arrived at Ilford
about five o'clock in the evening. This was a
little over twenty miles, I understood, and we
were both very tired. Under the very walls
of Ilford jail we sat down to rest, and Dick
called back to memory how he had come out of
that jail from "doing" nine months, and made
many affecting observations on old times,
and the lenient way in which the "screws"
treated him. We got to Stratford at about
eight o'clock, and I was nearly exhausted and
very footsore. Dick knew a certain lodging-house
in a bye-street, and thither we repaired.  A
woman came out, and called us " Sir" at every
other word, and said she was glad to see Dick.
After a few moments' talk she called a man, who
led us up-stairs into a small room, containing
one bed and a single chair.  We had twopence
when we got up, and with this we bought a
small loaf and made quickly into town.  In
passing through Whitechapel, Dick had to go to
a street leading out of Petticoat-lane, and I
never saw him afterwards.

A FREAK ON THE VIOLIN.

SUBSEQUENT to Tubal Cain's inventions;
harp and organ—the fiddle, or lyre played on
with a bow, takes rank by reason of its
antiquity. Its place and importance in the world
of Music are of the first interest. The difficulty
of handling it, which is extreme, implies the
rarest delicacies of ear and of touch—the latter
not to be attained to by strenuous good will;
supposing apt physical organisation denied.
"A hand" on the pianoforte is not a more
peculiar possession than "a bow arm." On the
precision of finger-positions does purity of tone
depend. The human voice has little more
expressive power—even with the advantage of
verbal declamation to help it—than the Violin.
Lastly, the instrument wnen mute has
characteristics which give it a place of its own.
Whereas every other one of its comrades is
worsened the fiddle is bettered by age and use.
A violin has been sold, in our time, for one
hundred and forty times the money paid for it
when it came from the hands of its maker. A
story is told, by Messrs. Sandys and Forster,
in their History of the Violin, that for an
instrument by Steiner the Tyrolese (who came
after the great Cremonese and Brescian makers)
fifteen hundred acres of American land were
ceded, at a dollar an acre, on which the thriving
city of Pittsburg now stands. There is
nothing analogous to this in the vicissitudes of
price which "the marked catalogue" of sold
statues and pictures registers.

The above being all so many indisputable
facts, no one need wonder that a body of tradition
and anecdote has gathered round the violin
family, the same comprising four members:—
besides itself, viola, violoncello, and double
bass, rich and various in quality. A
delightful and amusing book might be written on
the subject for the delectation of those "who
have music in their souls;" and, since it is
unfashionable to confess to contrary organisation
in these our times of changes and progress,
when Music has become a pleasure, which, like
the Plague of Egypt, pervades our kings' chambers
and our working men's houses—a freak