tiful eyes, just
like any other gentleman, and a fine, vigorous stock of the best
Glebeshire profanities. Mr. Poole, an irascible old man, himself came
out, a policeman approached, two old ladies from the Close, well known
to Jeremy, were shocked by the tramp, and the Cathedral bell, as though
it had just awoken up to its real responsibilities, suddenly began to
ring.

All this was, of course, delightful to Jeremy, and offered so many
possible veins of interest that he could have stayed there for hours.
He wanted very badly to ask the sailor why he covered up a perfectly
wholesome eye with a black patch, and he would have liked to see what
Hamlet could do in the direction of eating up the scattered remnants of
Mr. Poole's "2d." box; but he was dragged away by the agitated hand
of Miss Jones, having to console himself finally with a wink from the
august policeman, who, known throughout Polchester as Tom Noddy, was a
kindly soul and liked gentlemanly little boys, but persecuted the street
sort.

For a moment this exciting adventure carried him away, and he even
listened for a minute or two to Mary, who, seizing her opportunity,
began hurriedly: "Once upon a time there lived a sailor, very thin,
and he never washed, and he had a dog and a violin--" But soon he
remembered, and sighed and said: "Oh, bother, Mary!" and then walked
on by himself. And still, all through that hot afternoon, when even the
Rope Walk did not offer any shade, and when the Pol was of so clear a
colour that you could see trout and emerald stones and golden sand as
under glass, and when Hamlet was compelled to run ahead and find a piece
of shade and lie there stretched, panting, with his tongue out, until
they came up to him--even all these signs of a true and marvellous
summer did not relieve Jeremy of his burden. Something horrible was
going to happen. He knew it with such certainty that he wondered how
Mary and Helen could be so gaily light-hearted, and despised them for
their carelessness. This was connected in some way with the hot weather;
he felt as though, were a cold breeze suddenly to come, and rain to
fall, he would be happy again. There had been once a boy, older than
he, called Jimmy Bain, a fat, plump boy, who had lived next door to the
Coles. Whenever he had the opportunity he bullied Jeremy, pinching his
arms, putting pins into his legs, and shouting suddenly into his ears.
Jeremy, who had feared Johnny Bain, had always "felt" the sto