A FIT OF THE SULKS

CHAPTER XXXIX

THE THING THAT SCRATCHED

CHAPTER XL

WANTED--A PENNY IN THE SLOT

CHAPTER I

THE EMPTY MAIL GIG

I was only a young fellow when these things began to happen among us,
but I remember very well the morning when it first came out about the
Bewick carrier. He was postman, too, but had got permission to keep a
horse and cart so that he might make a good little bit by fetching
parcels and orders from town. Town to us meant East Dene, and Bewick,
to which Harry went, lay away to the east among the woods and hills.
It was a lonesome place, Bewick, and, indeed, is still, though now they
have got a railway coming within eight miles or so. But the mystery of
the Moat Wood happened before there was any talk of railways.

Harry Foster was his name--the carrier's, I mean--and a common one
enough in Northumberland. Many a ride have I gotten on his cart, which
was a light one on springs--blue body, orange shafts, panelled with
red, and the shafts lined red. You could tell the cart anywhere. At
least any of the Breckonside boys could, quite a mile away. And if it
was too far to see the cart, there was no mistaking Dappled Bess, the
carrier's horse, which was bright orange colour with white patches,
like the circus pony the clown rides. You've seen that pony. They
have one like that in every circus that has ever come to our town, and
there's few that pass Breckonside--Seager's, and Lord George's, and
Bostock's, the Original and the Real Original, both, and in old days,
so my father tells me, Wombwell's itself. Oh, a great place for
circuses is Breckonside!

I will tell you about it. Breckonside, where I live, is a good big
village about ten miles from the big town of East Dene, where there are
docks and a floating landing-stage, and a jail--everything modern and
up to date--with railways and electricity cars, and a theatre every
night almost, and tramcars that you can hang on behind, and mostly
everything that makes a boy happy--that is, for a day.

But still, give me Breckonside for steady. Why, there's only one
policeman in Breckonside, and he owes my father for his grocer's
bill--oh, ever so much! I shall not tell how much, but he knows that I
know. More than that, he always tells his wife what he is going to do,
and where he is going to go, and she tells Mrs. Robb, her neighbour
over the hedge, and Mrs. Robb tells Mrs. Martin, and Mrs. Martin's
Tommy tells