hallow limpid trout-stream;
on the other side its margin, low grassy meadows, a farmhouse in the
distance, backed by a still grove, from which rose a still church tower
and its still spire. Behind them, a close-shaven sloping lawn terminated
the hedgerow of the lane; seen clearly above it, with parterres of
flowers on the sward, drooping lilacs and laburnums farther back, and a
pervading fragrance from the brief-lived and rich syringas. The cripple
had climbed over a wooden rail that separated the lane from the rill,
and seated himself under the shade of a fantastic hollow thorn-tree.
Sophy, reclined beside him, was gathering some pale scentless violets
from a mound which the brambles had guarded from the sun. The dog had
descended to the waters to quench his thirst, but still stood knee-deep
in the shallow stream, and appeared lost in philosophical contemplation
of a swarm of minnows, which his immersion had disturbed, but which
now made itself again visible on the farther side of the glassy brook,
undulating round and round a tiny rocklet which interrupted the glide
of the waves, and caused them to break into a low melodious murmur. "For
these and all thy mercies, O Lord, make us thankful," said the victim of
ill-luck, in the tritest words of a pious custom. But never, perhaps, at
aldermanic feasts was the grace more sincerely said.

And then he untied the bundle, which the dog, who had hitherto carried
it by the way, had now carefully deposited at his side. "As I live,"
ejaculated Waife, "Mrs. Saunders is a woman in ten thousand. See, Sophy,
not contented with the bread and cheese to which I bade her stint her
beneficence, a whole chicken,--a little cake too for you, Sophy; she has
not even forgotten the salt. Sophy, that woman deserves the handsomest
token of our gratitude; and we will present her with a silver teapot the
first moment we can afford it."

His spirits exhilarated by the unexpected good cheer, the Comedian
gave way to his naturally blithe humour; and between every mouthful he
rattled or rather drolled on, now infant-like, now sage-like. He cast
out the rays of his liberal humour, careless where they fell,--on the
child, on the dog, on the fishes that played beneath the wave, on the
cricket that chirped amidst the grass; the woodpecker tapped the tree,
and the cripple's merry voice answered it in bird-like mimicry. To this
riot of genial babble there was a listener, of whom neither grandfather
nor gran