uld recall it
as applicable to my own lot."

"If it's out of a sermon," said Mr. Jope, "you may fire ahead.
But if, as you say, the man was taken for someone else, I thought it
would be clearer to start by knowing who he _was_."

"It happened in this way. The Emperor Jovinian one sultry afternoon
in summer was hunting--"

"What--foxes?"

"Keep quiet," put in Mr. Adams. "When he's telling you it happened
in a sermon!"

"In the ardour of the chase he had left his retinue far behind; and
finding himself by the shore of a lake, he alighted and refreshed
himself with a swim in its cool waters. While he thus disported
himself, a beggar stole his horse and his clothes."

Mr. Jope smote his leg. "Now I call that a thundering good yarn!
Short, sharp, and to the point."

"But you haven't heard the end."

"Eh? Is there any more of it?"

"Certainly. The Emperor, discovering the theft, was forced to creep
naked and ashamed to the nearest castle."

"What was he ashamed of?"

"Why, of being naked."

"I see. Damme, it fits in like a puzzle!"

"But at the castle, sad to say, no one recognised the proud Jovinian.
'Avaunt!' said the porter, and threatened to have him whipped for his
impudence. This distressing experience caused the Emperor to reflect
on the vanity of human pretensions, seeing that he, of whom the world
stood in awe, had, with the loss of a few clothes, forfeited the
respect of a slave."

"I see," repeated Mr. Jope, as the narrator paused. "What became of
the beggar?"

"I knew a worse case than that, even," said Bill Adams, turning his
quid meditatively. "It happened to a Bristol man, once a shipmate of
mine; by name Zekiel Philips, and not at all inclined to stoutness
when I knew him."

"Why _should_ he be?"

"You wait. His wife kept a slop-shop at Bristol, near the foot of
Christmas Stairs--if you know where that is?"

The Major, thus challenged, shook his head.

"Ah, well; you'll have heard of O-why-hee, anyway--where they
barbecued Captain Cook? And likewise of Captain Bligh of the
_Bounty_--Breadfruit Bligh, as they call him to this day?
Well, Bligh, as you know, took the _Bounty_ out to the Islands under
Government orders to collect breadfruit, the notion being that it
could be planted in the West Indies and grown at a profit. When he
came to grief and Government lookedlike dropping the job, a party of
Bristol merchants took the matter up, having interests of their own
in the