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