ce to
look at him, and the Griffin seemed very glad to see him; but the
young clergyman could not stay as he had done before, for he had many
duties to perform. Nobody went to the church, but the people came to
the Minor Canon's house, and anxiously asked him how long the Griffin
was going to stay.

"I do not know," he answered, "but I think he will soon be satisfied
with regarding his stone likeness, and then he will go away."

But the Griffin did not go away. Morning after morning he came to the
church, but after a time he did not stay there all day. He seemed to
have taken a great fancy to the Minor Canon, and followed him about
as he pursued his various avocations. He would wait for him at the
side door of the church, for the Minor Canon held services every day,
morning and evening, though nobody came now. "If any one should
come," he said to himself, "I must be found at my post." When the
young man came out, the Griffin would accompany him in his visits to
the sick and the poor, and would often look into the windows of the
school-house where the Minor Canon was teaching his unruly scholars.
All the other schools were closed, but the parents of the Minor
Canon's scholars forced them to go to school, because they were so
bad they could not endure them all day at home,--griffin or no
griffin. But it must be said they generally behaved very well when
that great monster sat up on his tail and looked in at the
school-room window.

When it was perceived that the Griffin showed no sign of going away,
all the people who were able to do so left the town. The canons and
the higher officers of the church had fled away during the first day
of the Griffin's visit, leaving behind only the Minor Canon and some
of the men who opened the doors and swept the church. All the
citizens who could afford it shut up their houses and travelled to
distant parts, and only the working people and the poor were left
behind. After some days these ventured to go about and attend to
their business, for if they did not work they would starve. They were
getting a little used to seeing the Griffin, and having been told
that he did not eat between equinoxes, they did not feel so much
afraid of him as before.

Day by day the Griffin became more and more attached to the Minor
Canon. He kept near him a great part of the time, and often spent the
night in front of the little house where the young clergyman lived
alone. This strange companionship was