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d the half-closed door, a gruff voice was heard reciting the appointed service for the day. Dan slept cautiously by, and motioned the stranger to tread softly. The latter paused, listening with a look of anxiety, and pressed his staff across his bosom;--soon, drawing his hood closer over his brow, he quickly followed the retreating footsteps of his companion. "Praised be old Cliderhow's tough pipe!" said Dan, when fairly out of hearing. "Ha, ha!--sit down, sit down, good father," opening a half-door, as he laughed, and thrusting in the pilgrim; "nobody can hear aught besides, when he's fairly agoing." The apartment into which this unceremonious conductor ushered his guest was Dan's store-room. A most whimsical assemblage of materials were here huddled together. Pans, wooden bowls, and matters of meaner import, entered into close familiarity with broadswords and helmets; boots of home manufacture in their primitive clothing; saddles with their housings; knives, and brown bottles of coarse pottery, were intermingled with many a grim-looking weapon of bloodthirsty aspect. From the walls depended a heterogeneous mass of apparel--cloaks, hats, and body-gear of unimaginable shape and appearance. Dan was steward of the wardrobe, or furniture-keeper to most of the retainers and other idle appendages to the hall; and as, in those days, the sciences dependent on order and classification had not spread their beneficial influence through society at large, it frequently happened that more time was consumed in rummaging amidst this unexplored chaos than would have sufficed to transact the whole affair for which any article was required. A round stool in the middle of this "_Thesaurus"_--the only unoccupied place except the ceiling--was the throne of our friend, Dan Hardseg, when dispensing out his treasures with stately munificence;--on this scanty perch was the stranger duly installed, and favoured with a benignant and knowing wink from Dan as he departed. Waiting for the return of his patron, the pilgrim was roused from a fit of reverie by the well-remembered greeting of the jester, Humphry Lathom, or "Daft Humpy," as he was mostly called. "Eh, nuncle! But if Dan catch thee, he'll be sure to give thee a lift i' the stocks." This strange creature cautiously opened the door, and was speedily engulfed in all that fearful accumulation of sloth and disorder. By his manner, it did not seem to be his first irruption into this
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