'To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
And cabbages--and kings--'"

He put the paper in his pocket, and set off rapidly down the village
street.

At his departure William Todd looked up quickly; then he got upon his
feet and quietly followed the editor. In the dusk a tattered little
figure rose up from the weeds across the way, and stole noiselessly
after William. He was in his shirt-sleeves, his waistcoat unbuttoned and
loose. On the nearest corner Mr. Todd encountered a fellow-townsman,
who had been pacing up and down in front of a cottage, crooning to a
protestive baby held in his arms. He had paused in his vigil to stare
after Harkless.

"Whereas he bound for, William?" inquired the man with the baby.

"Briscoes'," answered William, pursuing his way.

"I reckoned he would be," commented the other, turning to his wife, who
sat on the doorstep, "I reckoned so when I see that lady at the lecture
last night."

The woman rose to her feet. "Hi, Bill Todd!" she said. "What you got
onto the back of your vest?" William paused, put his hand behind him and
encountered a paper pinned to the dangling strap of his waistcoat. The
woman ran to him and unpinned the paper. It bore a writing. They took it
to where the yellow lamp-light shone through the open door, and read:

"der Sir
"FoLer harkls aL yo ples an gaRd him yoR
best venagesn is closteR, harkls not Got 3 das to liv
"We come in Wite."

"What ye think, William?" asked the man with the baby, anxiously. But
the woman gave the youth a sharp push with her hand. "They never dast to
do it!" she cried. "Never in the world! You hurry, Bill Todd. Don't you
leave him out of your sight one second."

CHAPTER V. AT THE PASTURE BARS: ELDER-BUSHES MAY HAVE STINGS

The street upon which the Palace Hotel fronted formed the south side of
the Square and ran west to the edge of the town, where it turned to the
south for a quarter of a mile or more, then bent to the west again. Some
distance from this second turn, there stood, fronting close on the road,
a large brick house, the most pretentious mansion in Carlow County.
And yet it was a homelike place, with its red-brick walls embowered in
masses of cool Virginia creeper, and a comfortable veranda crossing the
broad front, while half a hundred stalwart sentinels of elm and beech
and poplar stood guard around it. The f