Page:Adventures of Roderick Random.pdf/19

 to make his chambermaid lay the child to me after I was gone; and, accordingly, I set out in a few weeks for London; my whole fortune consisting of one suit of clothes, half-a-dozen ruffled shirts, and as many plain; two pair of worsted stockings and as many thread; a case of pocket instruments, a small edition of Horace, Wiseman's Surgery, and ten guineas in cash; for which Crab took my bond, bearing five per cent interest; at the same time, giving me a letter to the member of Parliament for our town, which he said would do my business. My finances were too weak to support the expences of hiring a horse; so I determined on setting out with the carriers, who transport goods from one place to another on horseback. This I accordingly put in execution, on the 1st. day of November 1739, sitting upon a pack-saddle between two baskets; one of which contained my goods in a knapsack.—But by the time we arrived at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I was so fatigued and benumbed with cold, that I resolved to travel the rest of my journey on foot.

The hostler of the inn at which we put up, understanding I was bound for London, advised me to take my passage in a collier.—I was almost persuaded to take his advice, when happening to go into a barbar's shop to be shaved, the young man, while he lathered my face, accosted me thus: Sir, I pro-