ld not put us up, he said, he had no room in his
cottage; there was nothing for us but to go on to the next place, a
village three miles distant, on the chance of finding a bed there. We
assured him that we could go no further, and after revolving the matter
a while longer he again said that we could not stay, as there was not a
room to be had in the place since poor Mrs. Flowerdew had her trouble.
She had a spare room and used to take in a lodger occasionally, and a
good handy woman she was too; but now--no, Mrs. Flowerdew could not take
us in. We questioned him, and he said that no one had died there and
there had been no illness. They were all quite well at Mrs. Flowerdew's;
the trouble was of another kind. There was no more to be said about it.

As nothing further could be got out of him we went in search of Mrs.
Flowerdew herself, and found her in a pretty vine-clad cottage. She was
a young woman, very poorly dressed, with a pleasing but careworn face,
and she had four small, bright, healthy, happy-faced children. They were
all grouped round her as she stood in the doorway to speak to us, and
they too were poorly dressed and poorly shod. When we told our tale she
appeared ready to burst into tears. Oh, how unfortunate it was that
she could not take us in! It would have made her so happy, and the
few shillings would have been such a blessing! But what could she do
now--the landlord's agent had put in a distress and carried off and sold
all her best things. Every stick out of her nice spare room had been
taken from them! Oh, it was cruel!

As we wished to hear more she told us the whole story. They had got
behindhand with the rent, but that had often been the case, only this
time it happened that the agent wanted a cottage for a person he wished
to befriend, and so gave them notice to quit. But her husband was a
high-spirited man and determined to stick to his rights, so he informed
the agent that he refused to move until he received compensation for his
improvements.

Questioned about these improvements, she led us through to the back to
show us the ground, about half an acre in extent, part of which was used
as a paddock for the donkey, and on the other part there were about a
dozen rather sickly-looking young fruit trees. Her husband, she said,
had planted the orchard and kept the fence of the paddock in order, and
they refused to compensate him! Then she took us up to the spare room,
empty of furniture, the flo