bered it
or forgot it; whether he had any idea that such an event had ever taken
place. Therefore, even while he slept, no one ventured to refer to it in
his presence; and for such sufficient reasons, these his chosen friends
were silent now.

Mr Willet had got by this time into such a complication of knots,
that it was perfectly clear he must wake or die. He chose the former
alternative, and opened his eyes.

'If he don't come in five minutes,' said John, 'I shall have supper
without him.'

The antecedent of this pronoun had been mentioned for the last time
at eight o'clock. Messrs Parkes and Cobb being used to this style of
conversation, replied without difficulty that to be sure Solomon was
very late, and they wondered what had happened to detain him.

'He an't blown away, I suppose,' said Parkes. 'It's enough to carry a
man of his figure off his legs, and easy too. Do you hear it? It blows
great guns, indeed. There'll be many a crash in the Forest to-night, I
reckon, and many a broken branch upon the ground to-morrow.'

'It won't break anything in the Maypole, I take it, sir,' returned old
John. 'Let it try. I give it leave--what's that?'

'The wind,' cried Parkes. 'It's howling like a Christian, and has been
all night long.'

'Did you ever, sir,' asked John, after a minute's contemplation, 'hear
the wind say "Maypole"?'

'Why, what man ever did?' said Parkes.

'Nor "ahoy," perhaps?' added John.

'No. Nor that neither.'

'Very good, sir,' said Mr Willet, perfectly unmoved; 'then if that
was the wind just now, and you'll wait a little time without speaking,
you'll hear it say both words very plain.'

Mr Willet was right. After listening for a few moments, they could
clearly hear, above the roar and tumult out of doors, this shout
repeated; and that with a shrillness and energy, which denoted that it
came from some person in great distress or terror. They looked at each
other, turned pale, and held their breath. No man stirred.

It was in this emergency that Mr Willet displayed something of that
strength of mind and plenitude of mental resource, which rendered him
the admiration of all his friends and neighbours. After looking at
Messrs Parkes and Cobb for some time in silence, he clapped his two
hands to his cheeks, and sent forth a roar which made the glasses dance
and rafters ring--a long-sustained, discordant bellow, that rolled
onward with the wind, and startling every echo, made the night a hund