titudes on the grass by the church--two
men of the class of itinerant showmen, exhibitors of the freaks of
Punch--and they had come there to make needful repairs in the stage
arrangements, for one was engaged in binding together a small gallows
with thread, while the other was fixing a new black wig upon the head of
a puppet.

"Are you going to show 'em to-night? Are you?" said the old man.

"That's the intention, governor, and unless I'm much mistaken, my
partner, Tommy Codlin, is a-calculating at this minute what we've lost
through your coming upon us. Cheer up, Tommy, it can't be much."

To this Mr. Codlin replied in a surly, grumbling manner, "I don't care
if we haven't lost a farden, but you're too free. If you stood in front
of the curtain, and see the public's faces as I do, you'd know human
natur' better."

"Ah! it's been the spoiling of you, Tommy, your taking to that branch,"
rejoined his companion. "When you played the ghost in the reg'lar drama
in the fairs, you believed in everything--except ghosts. But now you're
a universal mistruster."

"Never mind," said Mr. Codlin, with the air of a discontented
philosopher; "I know better now; p'r'aps I'm sorry for it. Look here,
here's all this Judy's clothes falling to pieces again."

The child, seeing they were at a loss for a needle and thread, timidly
proposed to mend it for them, and even Mr. Codlin had nothing to urge
against a proposal so reasonable.

"If you're wanting a place to stop at," said Short, "I should advise you
to take up at the same house with us. That's it, the long, low, white
house there. It's very cheap."

The public-house was kept by a fat old landlord and landlady, who made
no objection to receiving their new guests, but praised Nelly's beauty,
and were at once prepossessed in her behalf.

"We're going on to the races," said Short next morning to the
travellers. "If that's your way, and you'd like to have us for company,
let us go together. If you prefer going alone, only say the word, and we
shan't trouble you."

"We'll go with you," said the old man. "Nell--with them, with them."

They stopped that night at an ancient roadside inn called the Jolly
Sandboys, and supper being in preparation, Nelly and her grandfather had
not long taken their seats by the kitchen fire before they fell asleep.

"Who are they?" whispered the landlord.

"No-good, I suppose," said Mr. Codlin.

"They're no harm," said Short, "depend upon that. It'