CHAPTER 1. I AM BORNWhether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether thatstation will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin mylife with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I havebeen informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o'clock at night.It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.In consideration of the day and hour of my birth, it was declared bythe nurse, and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken alively interest in me several months before there was any possibilityof our becoming personally acquainted, first, that I was destined to beunlucky in life; and secondly, that I was privileged to see ghosts andspirits; both these gifts inevitably attaching, as they believed, toall unlucky infants of either gender, born towards the small hours on aFriday night.I need say nothing here, on the first head, because nothing can showbetter than my history whether that prediction was verified or falsifiedby the result. On the second branch of the question, I will only remark, that unless I ran through that part of my inheritance while I was stilla baby, I have not come into it yet. But I do not at all complain ofhaving been kept out of this property; and if anybody else should be inthe present enjoyment of it, he is heartily welcome to keep it.I was born with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in thenewspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas. Whether sea-goingpeople were short of money about that time, or were short of faith andpreferred cork jackets, I don't know; all I know is, that there was butone solitary bidding, and that was from an attorney connected with thebill-broking business, who offered two pounds in cash, and the balancein sherry, but declined to be guaranteed from drowning on any higherbargain. Consequently the advertisement was withdrawn at a deadloss--for as to sherry, my poor dear mother's own sherry was in themarket then--and ten years afterwards, the caul was put up in a raffledown in our part of the country, to fifty members at half-a-crown ahead, the winner to spend five shillings. I was present myself, and Iremember to have felt quite uncomfortable and confused, at a part ofmyself being disposed of in that way. The caul was won, I recollect, byan old lady with a hand-basket, who, very reluctantly, produced from itthe stipulated five shillings, all in halfpence, and twopence halfpennyshort--as it took an immense time and a great waste of arithmetic, toendeavour without any effect to prove to her. It is a fact which willbe long remembered as remarkable down there, that she was never drowned, but died triumphantly in bed, at ninety-two. I have understood that itwas, to the last, her proudest boast, that she never had been on thewater in her life, except upon a bridge; and that over her tea (to whichshe was extremely partial) she, to the last, expressed her indignationat the impiety of mariners and others, who had the presumption to go'meandering' about the world. It was in vain to represent to herthat some conveniences, tea perhaps included, resulted from thisobjectionable practice. She always returned, with greater emphasis andwith an instinctive knowledge of the strength of her objection, 'Let ushave no meandering.'Not to meander myself, at present, I will go back to my bir