h men smoking and women laughing, and a
great smell of cooking. There were long tables set on trestles down the
tent, and long benches beside 'em, and folks eating and drinking, and a
counter cross the head of the room, and great tin dishes simmering a-top
of it--trotters and sausages and tripe, bacon and beef and colliflowers,
cabbage and onions, blood-puddings and plum-duff. It seemed like a
chance to change my banknote, and see whether 'twere good and not
elf-money that folks have found turn to leaves in their pocket. So up I
walks, and bids 'em gie me a plate of beef and jack-pudding, and holds
out my note for't. The maid--for 'twas a maid behind the counter--took
it, and then she looks at it and then at me, for I were very wet and
muddy; and then she carries it to the gaffer, and he shows it to his
wife, who holds it up to the light, and then they all fall to talking,
and showed it to a 'cise-man what was there marking down the casks.

"The people sitting nigh saw what was up, and fell to staring at me till
I felt hot enough, and lief to leave my note where 'twas, and get out
and back to Wydcombe. But the 'cise-man must have said 'twere all
right, for the gaffer comes back with four gold sovereigns and nineteen
shillings, and makes a bow and says:

"`Your servant, sir; can I give you summat to drink?'

"I looked round to see what liquor there was, being main glad all the
while to find the note were good; and he says:

"`Rum and milk is very helping, sir; try the rum and milk hot.'

"So I took a pint of rum and milk, and sat down at the nighest table,
and the people as were waiting to see me took up, made room now, and
stared as if I'd been a lord. I had another plate o' beef, and another
rum-and-milk, and then smoked a pipe, knowing they wouldn't make no
bother of my being late that night at Wydcombe, when I brought back two
dozen banknotes.

"The meat and drink heartened me, and the pipe and the warmth of the
tent seemed to dry my clothes and take away the damp, and I didn't feel
the water any longer in my boots. The company was pleasant, too, and
some very genteel dealers sitting near.

"`My respec's to you, sir,' says one, holding up his glass to me--`best
respec's. These pore folk isn't used to the flimsies, and was a bit
surprised at your paper-money; but directly I see you, I says to my
friends, "Mates, that gentleman's one of us; that's a monied man, if
ever I see one." I knew you for a gentl