ly slumbering,
and dying, all in one.

He was within an ace of swooning, but recovered to a deep sense of
disgust and discouragement; and settled to go back to Holland at peep
of day. This resolution formed, he plucked up a little heart; and being
faint with hunger, asked one of the men of garlic whether this was not
an inn after all?

"Whence come you, who know not 'The Star of the Forest'?" was the reply.

"I am a stranger; and in my country inns have aye a sign."

"Droll country yours! What need of a sign to a public-house--a place
that every soul knows?"

Gerard was too tired and faint for the labour of argument, so he turned
the conversation, and asked where he could find the landlord?

At this fresh display of ignorance, the native's contempt rose too high
for words. He pointed to a middle-aged woman seated on the other side
of the oven; and turning to his mates, let them know what an outlandish
animal was in the room. Thereat the loud voices stopped, one by one, as
the information penetrated the mass; and each eye turned, as on a pivot,
following Gerard, and his every movement, silently and zoologically.

The landlady sat on a chair an inch or two higher than the rest, between
two bundles. From the first, a huge heap of feathers and wings, she was
taking the downy plumes, and pulling the others from the quills, and so
filling bundle two littering the floor ankle-deep, and contributing to
the general stock a stuffy little malaria, which might have played a
distinguished part in a sweet room, but went for nothing here. Gerard
asked her if he could have something to eat.

She opened her eyes with astonishment. "Supper is over this hour and
more.

"But I had none of it, good dame."

"Is that my fault? You were welcome to your share for me."

"But I was benighted, and a stranger; and belated sore against my will."

"What have I to do with that? All the world knows 'The Star of the
Forest' sups from six till eight. Come before six, ye sup well; come
before eight, ye sup as pleases Heaven; come after eight, ye get a clean
bed, and a stirrup cup, or a horn of kine's milk, at the dawning."

Gerard looked blank. "May I go to bed, then, dame?" said he sulkily "for
it is ill sitting up wet and fasting, and the byword saith, 'He sups who
sleeps.'"

"The beds are not come yet," replied the landlady. "You will sleep when
the rest do. Inns are not built for one."

It was Gerard's turn to be astonished. "The bed