“Well, as you’ve bin good to the dawg,” said the showman, “I’ll give you a few weeks’ regler employment certain, though the season is getting to an end. I’ve been and invested in a horgan. I was afraid the dawg ’ud never come back, and I’ve added a horgan to the drum for the sake of hextra attraction on the outside. Would yer mind takin’ the outside dooty and grindin’ the horgan? I can give you a matter o’ twelve shillin a week and most o’ your grub.” Dibble said he was much obliged to the gentleman, and he would be glad to try his hand at the business; he could only give it up if he did not suit. So he was engaged on the spot, and became part of the establishment of “The Northern Magician,” otherwise Digby Marquis, otherwise Bill Smith, the showman’s real name. The company consisted of himself and Christabel, who figured as “The Mysterious Lady,” and the dog, who was known as “Madam Momus the four-legged Wonder.” They travelled with a big cart-load of canvas, long poles, tressles, boards, and boxes, drawn by two ancient horses remarkable for “high points,” long necks, and drooping heads. They rose early the next morning and went on their way over dusty high-roads, through green shaded lanes covered with leaves, over country bridges, and beneath railway viaducts. They went on, now merrily down hill with cheery words from Digby the showman, and now sadly up hill with Dibble and Digby pushing behind, and Christabel and Momus urging the horses in front. Occasionally they rested beside green patches of grass, and unlimbered the horses that the poor brutes might crop the herbage. On these occasions the showman smoked his pipe, and gave Dibble bits of philosophical advice anent his “outside dooties” in connection with the organ and the drum. Sometimes they travelled in company with cheap-jacks and peep-shows; but these were generally too swift of motion for Digby’s establishment. Once a grand photographic saloon on radiant wheels, and with a smart young lady doing crochet work at the front door, went saucily by, without even a smile of contempt for the magician’s poles and bundles and boxes. But Digby had a merry word for everybody, and Momus stood upon her hind-legs and made derisive bows now and then when the vehicles were particularly fast and showy. At night, when the moon had risen, they arrived at the Severntown race-course, and Dibble sat down to rest, and wonder what Mrs. Dibble, Mr. Gibbs, and sundry other persons, thought about his running away. CHAPTER XXIII. IS OF A MISCELLANEOUS AND DISCURSIVE CHARACTER, BUT ESSENTIAL TO THE NARRATIVE. “The early bird for the worm,” saith the proverb, which the healthy-wealthy-and-wise preachers quote with such stirring effect in the society of young people.