ou tell a Spy?" persisted 'Biades after another pause,
ignoring reproof. "Does he go about with a gamey leg, like Mr
Nanjivell? Or what?"

"Don't you set up to laugh at gamey legs or any such infirmity," his
mother warned him, "when there's an All-seein' Eye about; an', for
all we know, around the corner at this moment gettin' ready to strike
you comical."

"There's no way to tell a Spy at first," added 'Beida; "an' that's
why they're so dangerous. The usual way is that first you have your
suspicions, an' then, some day when he's not lookin', you search his
premises an' the fat's in the fire."

"What's an infirmity?" asked 'Biades. Getting no answer, after half
a minute he asked, "What's premises?"

Still there was no answer. With a sigh he wriggled backwards out of
his shelter. Seizing the moment when his sister had at length
pressed down the lid and his mother was kneeling to lock it, he
slipped out of the room and betook himself to the water-side, where
he fell into deep thought.

This happened on Tuesday. During Wednesday and the morning of
Thursday the child was extraordinarily well-behaved. As Mrs
Penhaligon observed to her daughter--

"You kept warnin' me he'd be a handful, messin' about an' unpackin'
things as soon as they was packed. Whereas if he'd been his own
father, he couldn' ha' been more considerate in keepin' out o' the
way. 'Tis wonderful how their tender intellec's turn steady when
there's trouble in the family."

"But there isn't."

"Well, you know what I mean. For the last two days the blessed child
might not ha' been in existence, he's such a comfort."

"Well," said 'Beida, "you _may_ be right. But I never yet knowed
'Biades quiet for half this time 'ithout there was somebody's bill to
pay at the end o't."

That same afternoon as Miss Charity Oliver came down the hill on her
first errand as Relief Visitor, at the corner by Mrs Pengelly's she
happened on young 'Biades, posted solitary before the shop-window.
There was something queer in this: for the elder children had started
a game of tig, down by the bridge--that is to say, within earshot--
and as a rule any such game attracted 'Biades fatally to its
periphery, where he would stand with his eyes rounded and his heart
sick for the time when he would be grown up and invited to join in.
To-day his back was turned to the fun.

Miss Oliver, however, knew no more of 'Biades ways than that on her
approach as a rule he eit