In his own inimitable manner he would frequently relate to me, if prompted, stories of his youthful days, when he was toiling on the London Morning Chronicle, passing sleepless hours as a reporter on the road in a post-chaise, driving day and night from point to point to take down the speeches of Shiel or O’Connell.  He liked to describe the post-boys, who were accustomed to hurry him over the road that he might reach London in advance of his rival reporters, while, by the aid of a lantern, he was writing out for the press, as he flew over the ground, the words he had taken down in short-hand.  Those were his days of severe training, when in rain and sleet and cold he dashed along, scarcely able to keep the blinding mud out of his tired eyes; and he imputed much of his ability for steady hard work to his practice as a reporter, kept at his grinding business, and determined if possible to earn seven guineas a week.  A large sheet was started at this period of his life, in which all the important speeches of Parliament were to be reported verbatim for future reference.  Dickens was engaged on this gigantic journal.  Mr. Stanley (afterwards Lord Derby) had spoken at great length on the condition of Ireland.  It was a long and eloquent speech, occupying many hours in the delivery.  Eight reporters were sent in to do the work.  Each one was required to report three quarters of an hour, then to retire, write out his portion, and to be succeeded by the next.  Young Dickens was detailed to lead off with the first part.  It also fell to his lot, when the time came round, to report the closing portions of the speech.  On Saturday the whole was given to the press, and Dickens ran down to the country for a Sunday’s rest.  Sunday morning had scarcely dawned, when his father, who was a man of immense energy, made his appearance in his son’s sleeping-room.  Mr. Stanley was so dissatisfied with what he found in print, except the beginning and ending of his speech (just what Dickens had reported) that he sent immediately to the office and obtained the sheets of those parts of the report.  He there found the name of the reporter, which, according to custom, was written on the margin.  Then he requested that the young man bearing the name of Dickens should be immediately sent for.  Dickens’s father, all aglow with the prospect of probable promotion in the office, went immediately to his son’s stopping-place in the country and brought him back to London.  In telling the story, Dickens said:  “I remember perfectly to this day the aspect of the room I was shown into, and the two persons in it, Mr. Stanley and his father.  Both gentlemen were extremely courteous to me, but I noted their evident surprise at the appearance of so young a man.  While we spoke together, I had taken a seat extended to me in the middle of the room.  Mr. Stanley told me he wished to go over the whole speech and have it written out by me, and if I were ready he would begin now.  Where would I like to sit?  I