nteen years, no one but a Bridgeford Professor would accept this. She
saw, therefore, that she must keep her wits about her, and lead her
guests on to tell her as much as they could be induced to do.

"My son," she said innocently, "is always considerate to his men, and
that is why they are so devoted to him. I wonder which of them it was?
In what part of the preserves did you fall in with him?"

Hanky described the place, and gave the best idea he could of my father's
appearance.

"Of course he was swarthy like the rest of us?"

"I saw nothing remarkable about him, except that his eyes were blue and
his eyelashes nearly white, which, as you know, is rare in Erewhon.
Indeed, I do not remember ever before to have seen a man with dark hair
and complexion but light eyelashes. Nature is always doing something
unusual."

"I have no doubt," said Yram, "that he was the man they call Blacksheep,
but I never noticed this peculiarity in him. If he was Blacksheep, I am
afraid you must have found him none too civil; he is a rough diamond, and
you would hardly be able to understand his uncouth Sunch'ston dialect."

"On the contrary, he was most kind and thoughtful--even so far as to take
our permit from us, and thus save us the trouble of giving it up at your
son's office. As for his dialect, his grammar was often at fault, but we
could quite understand him."

"I am glad to hear he behaved better than I could have expected. Did he
say in what part of the preserves he had been?"

"He had been catching quails between the place where we saw him and the
statues; he was to deliver three dozen to your son this afternoon for the
Mayor's banquet on Sunday."

This was worse and worse. She had urged her son to provide her with a
supply of quails for Sunday's banquet, but he had begged her not to
insist on having them. There was no close time for them in Erewhon, but
he set his face against their being seen at table in spring and summer.
During the winter, when any great occasion arose, he had allowed a few
brace to be provided.

"I asked my son to let me have some," said Yram, who was now on full
scent. She laughed genially as she added, "Can you throw any light upon
the question whether I am likely to get my three dozen? I have had no
news as yet."

"The man had taken a good many; we saw them but did not count them. He
started about midnight for the ranger's shelter, where he said he should
sleep till daybreak, so as