He listened with a most inquisitive air.

His eye perused me from head to foot.
After some pause, he said, in a very emphatic manner, "Why into the country?
Have you family?
Kindred?
Friends ?" "No," answered I, "I have neither.

I go in search of the means of subsistence.

I have passed my life upon a farm, and propose to die in the same condition." "Whence have you come ?" "I came yesterday from the country, with a view to earn my bread in some way, but have changed my plan and propose now to return." "Why have you changed it?
In what way are you capable of earning your bread ?" "I hardly know," said I."I can, as yet, manage no tool, that can be managed in the city, but the pen.

My habits have, in some small degree, qualified me for a writer.