Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/75

Rh they put it down beside me. I examined it with great care, and eyed it wistfully. I was worn out, and it was of a beautiful and luxurious appearance, inviting me not to hesitate, but take my repose at once, lest the opportunity should pass away and not present itself again. But then a horrible thought darted into my mind. Was it not a larrikin's couch? and what is a larrikin? He is a waif of the streets who delights in playing mischievous, cruel tricks on passers-by who are not interfering with him; and he can be a young man of higher rank, with more coin than conscience, who prowls about at night tearing down tradesmen's signs, lifting gates off their hinges, assaulting the police, and amusing himself in other ways. The larrikin can be of the sweet and gentle sex also, more is the pity. The peculiar word was coined impromptu, it is said, by a Melbourne policeman, who introduced some youths and maidens to a certain magistrate with the intimation 'Please, sir, I caught these pussons a-larrikin!' It almost puts me in mind of the old-fashioned 'sky-larking.'

But how could I tell what might be the consequence to me if I laid my weary bones upon the larrikin's couch? Perhaps a riveting of the accursed chain! Perhaps some fearful disease! Perhaps an eternal shutting in my face of the gates of Paradise! But no, no, I cannot believe in such cruelty. God is surely a more merciful Being. I will not be chicken-hearted. Overcome by fatigue, I could not resist the temptation of first sitting upon it, and then cautiously lying down on it. All my doubts and fears vanished at once. Was I not under the protection of my 'friend' the Demon and his powerful police? And now that I had broken the ice, how soft, how sweet, how extremely comfortable! I never stretched myself on such a couch—it was delicious beyond the power of description, 'Certainly,' said I half aloud, 'if happiness can be found in