wasn't weel at all! When I rolled over I was
off the pony, for sure; but I was stuck fast to the saddle just the
same."

"What ever did they do with thee then?"

"I'm coming to that, too, on'y some folks are so mortal fond of hearing
theirselves talk. They picked me up, saddle and all, and set me on the
edge of the kitchen dresser. And there I sat for the best part of a
week, sleeping and waking, and carding and spinning, and getting fearful
thin. But I got off at last, I did!" There was a look of proud content
in Gubblum's face as he added, "What a thing it is to be eddicated! We
don't vally eddication half enough!"

A young fellow--it was Lang Geordie Moore--pushed a smirking face
between the shoulders of two girls, and said:

"Did you take to reading and writing, then, Gubblum, when you were on
the kitchen dresser?"

There was a gurgling titter, but, disdaining to notice the interruption,
Gubblum lifted his tawny face into the glare of the sun, and said:

"It was my son as did it--him that is learning for a parson. He came
home from St. Bees, and 'Mother,' he said, before he'd been in the house
a minute, 'let's take fathers clogs off, and then his feet will come
out of the stirrups."

A loud laugh bubbled over the company. Gubblum sat erect in the saddle
and added with a grave face:

"That's what comes of eddication and reading the Bible and all o' that!
If I had fifty sons I'd make 'em all parsons."

The people laughed again, and crowed and exchanged nods and knowing
winks. They enjoyed the peddler's talk, and felt an indulgent tenderness
for his slow and feeble intellect. He on his part enjoyed no less to
assume a simple and shallow nature. A twinkle lurked under his bushy
brows while he "smoked the gonies." They laughed and he smiled slyly,
and both were satisfied.

Gubblum Oglethorpe, peddler, of Branth'et Edge, got off his pony and
stroked its tousled mane. He was leading it to a temporary stable, when
he met face to face the young wrestler, Paul Ritson, who was coming from
the tent in his walking costume. Drawing up sharply, he surveyed Paul
rapidly from head to foot, and then asked him with a look of
bewilderment what he could be doing there.

"Why, when did you come back to these parts?"

Paul smiled.

"Come back! I've not been away."

The old man looked slyly up into Paul's face and winked. Perceiving no
response to that insinuating communication, his wrinkled face became
more grave, and h