r. Punch and Mr. Toby!" said Freddie.

"The wery same," said the bald-headed one.

"That's me," said the other.

Behind Mr. Toby stood a lean man in spectacles. His night-gown hung upon
him very loosely, and he was very spare indeed. His smooth-shaven cheeks
were somewhat hollow; his eyes behind his glasses were deep and solemn;
his frame was the frame of one who subdues the flesh by fasting;
snow-white hair, curling inward at the back of his neck, made a kind of
aureole around his thin face; he looked for all the world as he stood
barefoot in his long white gown, like one of those saints you see in
painted glass windows in a church.

"Is it," said Freddie, hesitating, "is it--the Churchwarden?"

"I have reason to believe," said the saintly looking man, "that I have
been known by that name. But I am in reality, and always have been, in
reality, something far more lowly than a churchwarden; I am, and always
have been, at heart, a meek and humble follower of the holy Thomas a
Kempis, whose life of serene and cloistered sanctity I have always
wished to imitate. Now that I am myself, it is my ambition to be known,
if it is not too presumptuous to say so, as Thomas the Inferior. Pax
vobiscum."

"I ain't got the least idea what that means," said Toby, "but anyway
it's the Churchwarden's voice, whether he calls himself Thomas the
Inferior or Daniel the Deleterious. You're heartily welcome, Warden, and
I hope you won't mind my saying that a good meal wouldn't do you any
harm, from the looks of you. I'm pretty near starved to death myself.
Mr. Punch, we've got rid of our humps, as sure as you're born. We're as
straight in our bodies as we've always been in our minds, and that's as
straight as a string. By crackey, I never felt so fine in my life;
blamed if I couldn't lick my weight in wildcats."

"Hi 'ave no wish to do so," said Mr. Punch. "Hi do not desire to engage
in any conflict whatever; Hi should regard such conduct as wery
reprehensible; wery. But one cannot but admit, harfter one's back 'as
been so long out of correct proportion, as one may s'y, that one enjoys
a wery pronounced satisfaction when one feels one's self restored to
one's rightful position as a hupright person, in common with one's
fellow--"

"What about Mr. Hanlon?" said Toby, turning around.

"Michael Hanlon, prisent!" said a cheerful voice.

Behind the Inferior Thomas stood a tall and handsome man, the picture of
an athlete in the prime of con