d to be one
of the finest players of the country?"

"If it is a match, that is different," said Roger.

He turned up his sleeves, hooked on his apron, and in the twinkling of
an eye had adjusted the shaft.

"How much do I owe you?" asked the unknown, drawing out his purse.

"Nothing at all, faith; it is not worth while."

The stranger insisted, but in vain.

III

"You are too honest, i'faith," said he to the wheelwright, "for me to
be in your debt. I will grant you the fulfilment of three wishes."

"Don't forget to wish what is _best_," added his companion.

At these words the wheelwright smiled incredulously.

"Are you not a couple of the loafers of Capelette?" he asked, with a
wink.

The idlers of the crossways of Capelette were considered the wildest
wags in Conde.

"Whom do you take us for?" replied the unknown in a tone of severity,
and with his club he touched an axle, made of iron, which instantly
changed into one of pure silver.

"Who are you, then," cried Roger, "that your word is as good as ready
money?"

"I am St. Peter, and my companion is St. Antony, the patron of
golfers."

"Take the trouble to walk in, gentlemen," said the wheelwright of Coq;
and he ushered the two saints into the back parlour. He offered them
chairs, and went to draw a jug of beer in the cellar. They clinked
their glasses together, and after each had lit his pipe:

"Since you are so good, sir saints," said Roger, "as to grant me the
accomplishment of three wishes, know that for a long while I have
desired three things. I wish, first of all, that whoever seats himself
upon the elm-trunk at my door may not be able to rise without my
permission. I like company and it bores me to be always alone."

St. Peter shook his head and St. Antony nudged his client.

IV

"When I play a game of cards, on Sunday evening, at the 'Fighting
Cock,'" continued the wheelwright, "it is no sooner nine o'clock than
the garde-champetre comes to chuck us out. I desire that whoever shall
have his feet on my leathern apron cannot be driven from the place
where I shall have spread it."

St. Peter shook his head, and St. Antony, with a solemn air, repeated:

"Don't forget what is _best_."

"What is best," replied the wheelwright of Coq, nobly, "is to be the
first golfer in the world. Every time I find my master at golf it
turns my blood as black as the inside of the chimney. So I want a club
that will carry the ball as high as the bel