at diffused, mysterious purring of the nightjars, even as the golden
disc of the moon shone against and above the darkening skies and dusky
woods.

And as we sat there, gazing and listening, a human voice came out of the
night--a call prolonged and modulated like the coo-ee of the Australian
bush, far off and faint; but the children in the kitchen heard it at the
same time, for they too had been listening, and instantly went mad with
excitement.

"Father!" they all screamed together. "Father's coming!" and out they
rushed and away they fled down the darkening road, exerting their full
voices in shrill answering cries.

We were anxious to see this unfortunate man, who was yet happy in a
loving family. He had gone early in the morning in his donkey-cart to
the little market town, fourteen miles away, to get the few necessaries
they could afford to buy. Doubtless they would be very few. We had
not long to wait, as the white donkey that drew the cart had put on a
tremendous spurt at the end, notwithstanding that the four youngsters
had climbed in to add to his burden. But what was our surprise to behold
in the charioteer a tall, gaunt, grey-faced old man with long white hair
and beard! He must have been seventy, that old man with a young wife and
four happy bright-eyed little children!

We could understand it better when he finally settled down in his corner
in the kitchen and began to relate the events of the day, addressing his
poor little wife, now busy darning or patching an old garment, while the
children, clustered at his knee, listened as to a fairy tale. Certainly
this white-haired man had not grown old in mind; he was keenly
interested in all he saw and heard, and he had seen and heard much in
the little market town that day. Cattle and pigs and sheep and shepherds
and sheepdogs; farmers, shopkeepers, dealers, publicans, tramps, and
gentlefolks in carriages and on horseback; shops, too, with beautiful
new things in the windows; millinery, agricultural implements, flowers
and fruit and vegetables; toys and books and sweeties of all colours.
And the people he had met on the road and at market, and what they had
said to him about the weather and their business and the prospects of
the year, how their wives and children were, and the clever jokes they
had made, and his own jokes, which were the cleverest of all. If he had
just returned from Central Africa or from Thibet he could not have had
more to tell them nor t