cuse the
noise I make with my breathin', which is the assma, and brought on by
fightin' my way through the other women.'

Mr Pinsent gasped, and put up a hand to his brow.

'The other women?' he echoed. 'What other women?'

'The passage is full of 'em,' said Mrs Salt, much as though she were
reporting that the house was on fire.

'Ay,' said the widow, 'but my 'Dolphus is the guilty one--I got his
word for it.'

'There's Maria Bunny,' persisted Mrs Salt, beginning to tick off the
list on her fingers, 'Maria Bunny with her Wesley John, and Mary
Polly Polwarne with her Nine Days' Wonder, and Amelia Trownce with
the twins, and Deb Hicks with the child she christened Nonesuch,
thinkin' 'twas out of the Bible; and William Spargo's second wife
Maria with her step-child, and Catherine Nance with her splay-footed
boy that I can never remember the name of--'

'Oh! send 'em away!' bawled Mr Pinsent. 'Send 'em away before their
husbands come home from work and raise a riot!' Then he recollected
himself. 'No, fetch 'em all in here, from the street,' said he,
dropping into a chair and taking his head in both hands. 'Fetch 'em
all in, and let me deal with 'em!'

The town, when it laughed over the story next day, found the cream of
the joke in this--Bester Pinsent, in promising Mrs Halloran that her
boy should but share punishment with the rest, had forgotten in his
agitation of mind to stipulate that the reward should also be
divided. As it was, he had paid her the full five shillings, and the
rest of the women (there were twenty-four) would be content with
nothing less.

But it was really little Mr Lupus, the schoolmaster, that--all
unconsciously--had the last word. Trotting past Butcher Trengrove's
shop next morning, on his way to open school, Mr Lupus caught sight
of his Worship standing within the doorway, halted, and came across
the street with a nervous flush on his face.

'Mr Mayor, sir, if I may have a word with you? Begging your pardon,
sir, but it lies on my conscience--all night, sir, it has been
troubling me--that I boasted to you yesterday of my boys' good
attendance. Indeed, sir, it has been good in the past. But yesterday
afternoon! Oh, sir, I fear that you were right, after all, and
something serious is amiss with the boys of this town!'

I regret that I cannot report here the precise words of Mr Pinsent's
reply.

NEWS FROM TROY!

Troy--not for the first time in its history--is consum