The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1885-04-25
CHAPTER Ii.
LEAVES FROM A YOUNG GENTLEMAN /
JOURNAL.


| promised certain friend of
mine, in literary Bohemia, to keep
notes of my adventures, with a
view to future publication. illus
trated by my own brilliant sketch
es. / fear the promise was a
rash one firstly, because / am
constitutionally lazy and adverse
to literary exertion; and, secondly,
because | have, as yet, met with
no adventures worth writing about.
Not that | have altogether lost my
first enthusiasm for the idea.
There would be novelty in the I'll
tie, at any rate, Cruises in a Cara
van,' by Charles Brinkley, with
illustrations b, The author; photo
graphic frontispiece, the Caravan,
with Tim as large as life, Sinking
self-eonseiously in delight at hay
ing his pictur' taken. Ny friend
Bias promised to find me u
publisher, if | will only preserve.
Well, we shall see. If the beck
does not progress twill be entire
ly my own fault; for have any
amount of time on my hands.
Paint as hard as | may all day, /
have always the long evenings,
when | must either write, read or
do nothing.
$50 l am beginning this even
ing, exactly fortnight after my
first start from Chester. | pur-
chased the caravan there from q
morose individual, with one eye,
who had it built with view to
the exhibition of a 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 individ-
ual having no definite idea of a
novelty to take his place, the cara
van came into the market. Hav-
ing secured this travelling palace,
duly furnished with window blinds,
piece of carpet, chair-bedstead,
table, a stove, cooking utensils,
not to speak of my own artistic
paraphernalia, j sent over to Null
rany, Country Mayo, for my old
servant, Tim-na-Chalnig, or Tim
o the Ferry, otherwise Tim Lin
ney; and with his assistance, when
he arrived, ! purchased u strong
mare at Chester fair. All these
preliminaries being settled, we
started one fine morning soon
after daybreak, duly bound for ex-
plorations along the macadamized
highways and byways Of North
Wales.
81 am pleased to say that Tim,
after he had recovered the first
shock of seeing a peripatetic
dwelling house, took to the idea
wonderfully. "Sure it's JusSlike
the ould cabin at home,' he aver
red, 'barrin' the wheels, and the
windies' and the chimley, and the
haste to pull it along; and | think
the resemblance would have been
complete in his eyes if there had
been two or three pigs to trot mer-
rily. behind the back door. AS
for my self, l took to the noamed
life as naturally as if ! had never
in my life been in a civilized habi-
tation. To be able to 90 where
one pleased, to dawdle ns one
ll45fGas~s, to stop and sleep who're
one pleased, was certainly a new
sensation. My friends, observing
my sluggish ways, had often com
pared me to that interesting Great
ure, the snail, now tho resemblance
was complete, for / was a sanil in
deed, with my house comfortably
fixed upon my shoulders, crawling
TRANQUILITY along.
"Of course, the caravan has it's
inconvenience. Inside, to quote
the elegant smile Of our progoni-
tors, there is scarcely room enough
to swing n 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 ar
engagements are primitive, and, M
Tim has no idea whatever in the
culinary art, beyond being uble to
boil potatoes in their skins and