e concerted at the Mayor's was strictly adhered to. The
following account, however, which appeared in the Sunch'ston bi-weekly
newspaper two days after my father had left, was given me by George a
year later, on the occasion of that interview to which I have already
more than once referred. There were other accounts in other papers, but
the one I am giving departs the least widely from the facts. It ran:-

"_The close of a disagreeable incident_.--Our readers will remember that
on Sunday last during the solemn inauguration of the temple now dedicated
to the Sunchild, an individual on the front bench of those set apart for
the public suddenly interrupted Professor Hanky's eloquent sermon by
declaring himself to be the Sunchild, and saying that he had come down
from the sun to sanctify by his presence the glorious fane which the
piety of our fellow-citizens and others has erected in his honour.

"Wild rumours obtained credence throughout the congregation to the effect
that this person was none other than the Sunchild himself, and in spite
of the fact that his complexion and the colour of his hair showed this to
be impossible, more than one person was carried away by the excitement of
the moment, and by some few points of resemblance between the stranger
and the Sunchild. Under the influence of this belief, they were
preparing to give him the honour which they supposed justly due to him,
when to the surprise of every one he was taken into custody by the
deservedly popular Ranger of the King's preserves, and in the course of
the afternoon it became generally known that he had been arrested on the
charge of being one of a gang of poachers who have been known for some
time past to be making much havoc among the quails on the preserves.

"This offence, at all times deplored by those who desire that his Majesty
should enjoy good sport when he honours us with a visit, is doubly
deplorable during the season when, on the higher parts of the preserves,
the young birds are not yet able to shift for themselves; the Ranger,
therefore, is indefatigable in his efforts to break up the gang, and with
this end in view, for the last fortnight has been out night and day on
the remoter sections of the forest--little suspecting that the marauders
would venture so near Sunch'ston as it now seems they have done. It is
to his extreme anxiety to detect and punish these miscreants that we must
ascribe the arrest of a man, who, however foolish,