re about it."

The jockey having shaken both of our hands, and filled our glasses and
his own with what champagne remained in the bottle, put on his coat, sat
down, and resumed his pipe and story.

"Where was I? Oh, roaming about the country with Hopping Ned and Biting
Giles. Those were happy days, and a merry and prosperous life we led.
However, nothing continues under the sun in the same state in which it
begins, and our firm was soon destined to undergo a change. We came to a
village where there was a very high church steeple, and in a little time
my comrades induced a crowd of people to go and see me display my gift by
flinging stones above the heads of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, who
stood at the four corners on the top, carved in stone. The parson,
seeing the crowd, came waddling out of his rectory to see what was going
on. After I had flung up the stones, letting them fall just where I
liked--and one, I remember, fell on the head of Mark, where I dare say it
remains to the present day--the parson, who was one of the description of
people called philosophers, held up his hand, and asked me to let the
next stone I flung up fall upon it. He wished, do you see, to know with
what weight the stone would fall down, and talked something about
gravitation--a word which I could never understand to the present day,
save that it turned out a grave matter to me. I, like a silly fellow
myself, must needs consent, and, flinging the stone up to a vast height,
contrived so that it fell into the parson's hand, which it cut
dreadfully. The parson flew into a great rage, more particularly as
everybody laughed at him, and, being a magistrate, ordered his clerk, who
was likewise constable, to conduct me to prison as a rogue and vagabond,
telling my comrades that if they did not take themselves off, he would
serve them in the same manner. So Ned hopped off, and Giles ran after
him, without making any gathering, and I was led to Bridewell, my
mittimus following at the end of a week, the parson's hand not permitting
him to write before that time. In the Bridewell I remained a month,
when, being dismissed, I went in quest of my companions, whom, after some
time, I found up, but they refused to keep my company any longer; telling
me that I was a dangerous character, likely to bring them more trouble
than profit; they had, moreover, filled up my place. Going into a
cottage to ask for a drink of water, they saw a country fellow