disturb the peaceful thoughts of the Troutpegsters.

'The prosperity of the township was so great, and the comfort of each of
its inhabitants so well assured that for many years no wickedness of any
kind had shown its head, and the life of a policeman in this happy and
secluded town was one long summer holiday. To be sure, a little skirmish
here and there amongst the lads might make it wise gently to exert my
authority, or a little quarrel amongst the girls call forth a slight
rebuke, but otherwise my life was one of unbroken peace.

'My dearest friend was the tea-grocer, a man of sad and dreamy ways and
quite devoid of guile, who returned my affection with all the ardour of
a singularly loving nature. He shared his every joy with me, and when
his holidays came round no greater recreation could he find than in my
society. Walking by my side as I strolled along my beat, he would
confide to me his simple hopes and fears, and in his troubles seek my
readily extended sympathy. Such simplicity and inoffensive mien had he
as brought to him a rich harvest of respect and love, together with the
custom of his fellow-townsmen.

'In time his little store became quite an evening resort for those older
townsmen who, no longer able to race about the green when work was done,
would perhaps look in to purchase half a pound of coffee or tea, or
sugar or salt for the good wife, and stay chatting with the amiable
grocer. Then maybe one would look in to buy an ounce of tobacco, or the
excellent snuff for which the grocer was far famed, and so on and so on
until the shop was full. Seated around on the tea-chests, coffee bins,
tobacco boxes and snuff tins, many a pleasant evening have we spent,
enlivened by good-natured arguments and discussions on every conceivable
subject.

'One sultry summer's afternoon, as I was standing thinking in the
cobbled high-street, the quiet of the still warm day disturbed only by
the gentle breathing of the shopmen as they dozed amongst their wares,
or the distant bleating of the sheep as they browsed in and out the
rocks and Druid stones capping the surrounding hills, the comforting
remembrance came to me of many a refreshing cup of tea partaken with the
grocer in the snug little parlour behind his shop. With hardly a thought
of what I was about, I allowed my idle steps gently to stray towards the
homely store of my friend. Entering therein, and finding that he was
away from home, I sat me down upon the li