eared from round the corner of the
coach house. His face also wore a grin.

"Ay, true now, you do want the poomp," he said. "Come, and I'll
show 'ee. It do make a young feller weak-like when he overgrows his
strength. There was my sister Jane's Billy, to be sure, shot up
like a weed, he did, was for ever falling into fits, and a bit soft
in his noddle, too, poor soul.

"Here's the poomp; be 'ee strong enough to draw for yourself, think
'ee, or shall I do it for 'ee?"

I was strongly tempted to catch the fellow by the middle and give
him a back throw which would enlighten him as to my physical
aptitude; but I forbore, and allowed him to pump for me, which he
did with great willingness, discoursing the while on the
infirmities of all his kin. Refreshed by my ablutions, I was
nothing loath to follow him to the kitchen, where a red-faced
little dumpling of a cook set before me such a breakfast as would
have made Mistress Pennyquick stare.

"Eat away," she said, setting her arms akimbo and eying me up and
down as I ravenously began my meal. "Lawks! I don't wonder ye
fainted if 'tis true, as they say, that ye hadn't had bite or sup
for a week. You've a big body to keep a-goin', to be sure;
overgrowed your strength seemingly. The likes of me don't faint."

And at this Susan the housemaid, who had just come in, giggled, and
put her hand over her mouth, and I felt as if my ears had rims of
fire. Would they never have done with their personal allusions?
Mentally I cursed Job and Bill and Topper very heartily, and as
heartily wished that my inches were a little less.

Luckily I was not born without a certain sense of humor. It had
deserted me under stress of what I had gone through during the last
two days, but when my cavities had been well filled with Martha's
excellent viands, I was suddenly able to see myself as I must
appear to others, and I astonished the servants by laying down my
knife and fork, leaning back in my chair, and emitting a long
ripple of laughter.

"Goodness alive!" exclaimed Martha. "Giles said a' was a natural,
and I believe a' spoke true."

"No, no," I spluttered. "My noddle's sound enough. I think; 'tis
only that--that I'm overgrown!"

And with that I laughed again, and my merriment was infectious, for
the round little cook laughed until she dropped exhausted into a
chair, and the housemaid uttered shrill little titters from behind
her hands, bending forward at each explosion, opening her hand