re promised in pulling it
down, than about his shattered household, we had a very favorable time
for coming in, and were pronounced to be foreigners who must not be
allowed to run up bills.

This rustic conclusion suited us quite well, and we soon confirmed it
unwittingly, Betsy offering a German thaler and I an American dollar at
the shop of the village chandler and baker, so that we were looked upon
with some pity, and yet a kind desire for our custom. Thus, without any
attempt of ours at either delusion or mystery, Mrs. Strouss was hailed
throughout the place as "Madam Straw," while I, through the sagacity
of a deeply read shoe-maker, obtained a foreign name, as will by-and-by
appear.

We lodged at the post-office, not through any wisdom or even any thought
on our part, but simply because we happened there to find the cleanest
and prettiest rooms in the place. For the sun being now in the height
of August, and having much harvest to ripen, at middle day came ramping
down the little street of Shoxford like the chairman of the guild of
bakers. Every house having lately brightened up its whitewash--which
they always do there when the frosts are over, soon after the feast of
St. Barnabas--and the weeds of the way having fared amiss in the absence
of any water-cart, it was not in the strong, sharp character of the sun
to miss such an opportunity. After the red Californian glare, I had no
fear of any English sun; but Betsy was frightened, and both of us were
glad to get into a little place sheltered by green blinds. This chanced
to be the post-office, and there we found nice lodgings.

By an equal chance this proved to be the wisest thing we could possibly
have done, if we had set about it carefully. For why, that nobody ever
would impute any desire of secrecy to people who straightway unpacked
their boxes at the very head-quarters of all the village news. And the
mistress of the post was a sharp-tongued woman, pleased to speak freely
of her neighbors' doings, and prompt with good advice that they should
heed their own business, if any of them durst say a word about her own.
She kept a tidy little shop, showing something of almost every thing;
but we had a side door, quite of our own, where Betsy met the baker's
wife and the veritable milkman; and neither of them knew her, which was
just what she had hoped; and yet it made her speak amiss of them.

But if all things must be brought to the harsh test of dry reason, I
my