Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-10-31
CHAPTER II.
LEAVES FROM A YOUNG GENTLEMAN's JOUR-
NAL

LEAVES FROM YOUNG GENTLEMAN's JOUR-
NAL.
Before setting forth on this memorable
pilgrimage to nowhere, promised a certain
friend Of mine, in literary Bohemia, to keep
notes Of my adventures with view to fu-
ture publication, illustrated by my own bril-
liant sketches. l fear the promise was a
rash one-frstly, because l am constitution
ally lazy and averse to literary exertion; and
secondly, because have, as yet, met with no
adventures worth writing about. Not that l
have altogether lost my first enthusiasm for
the idea. There would be novelty in the
title, at any rate, Cruises in Caravan by
Charles Brinkley, with illustrations by the
author; Photographic frontispiece. the Cara
van, with Tim as large as life, smirking self
consciously in delight at having his pictur'
taken. My friend B. has promised to find
me publisher, if will only persevere
Well, we shall see. If the book does not
progress it will be entirely my own fault; for
have any amount of time on my hands
Paint as hard as may all day, have al
ways the long evenings, when must either
write, read or do nothing.
$50 am beginning this evening, exactly a
fortnight after my first start from Chester. l
purchased the caravan there from a morose
individual, with one eye, who had it built
with view to the exhibition of Wild Man
Of Patagonia; but said Wild Man having
taken it into his head to return to County
Cork, where he was born. and the morose in
dividual having no definite idea of novelty to
take his place, the caravan came into the
market. Having secured this travelling
palace, duly furnished with window-blinds,
apiece Of carpet, -bedstead, table, q
stove, cooking utensils, not to speak of my
own artistic paraphernalia, sent over to
Mulrany, County Mayo, for my old servant,
Tm-na- Chalnig, or Tim O. the Ferry-other-
wise Tim Linney; and with his assistance,
when he arrived, purchased a strong mare
at Chester Fair. All these preliminaries
being settled, we started one fine morning
soon after daybreak. duly bound for explora-
tons along the macadamized highways and
byways of North Wales.
II am pleased to say that Tim after he
had recovered the first shock of seeing a peri
patetic dwelling house, took to the idea won
derfully. Sure it's just like the ould cabin at
home, he averred, 'barrin' the wheels, and
the windies, and the chimley, and the haste to
poll it along; and I think the resemblance
would have been complete in bis eyes there
had only been two or three pigs to trut mer-
rily behind the back door. As for myself,
took to the no,nad life as naturally as IL /
bad never in my life been in civilized habi-
tation. To be able to go where one pleased,
to dawdle as one pleases, to stop and sleep
where one pleased, was certainly q new SEN
sation. My friends, observing my sluggish
WAYS, had often compared me to that inter
esting creature, the snail; now the resem-
blance was complete, for was snail indeed,
with my house comfortably fixed upon my
shoulders, crawling TRANQUILITY along.
"Of course. the caravan has its inconveni-
ences. Inside, to quote the elegant simile of
our progenitors, there is scarcely room enough
10 swing cat in; and when my bed is made,
and Tins hammock is swung just inside the
door, the place forms the tiniest Of sleeping
chambers. Then our cooking arrangements
are primitive, and, as Tim has no idea what
ever in the culinary art, beyond being able to
boil potatoes in their skins and make very
doubtful 'stirabout, there b . certain want
Of variety in our repast2
t'Besides the inconvenisnces which havs
mentioned, but which wsrs, perhaps, hardly
worth chrunicling. ths caravan has sotiAl