y hair of a pale straw-color, a thin face and high
cheek-bones, and was dressed--as was also Master Hymn-of-Praise Busy--in
a dark purple doublet and knee breeches, all looking very much the worse
for wear; the brown tags and buttons with which these garments had
originally been roughly adorned were conspicuous in a great many places
by their absence, whilst all those that remained were mere skeletons of
their former selves.

The plain collars and cuffs which relieved the dull color of the men's
doublets were of singularly coarse linen not beyond reproach as to
cleanliness, and altogether innocent of starch; whilst the thick brown
worsted stockings displayed many a hole through which the flesh peeped,
and the shoes of roughly tanned leather were down at heel and worn
through at the toes.

Undoubtedly even in these days of more than primitive simplicity and of
sober habiliments Master Hymn-of-Praise Busy, butler at Acol Court in
the county of Kent, and his henchman, Master Courage Toogood, would have
been conspicuous for the shabbiness and poverty of the livery which they
wore.

The hour was three in the afternoon. Outside a glorious July sun spread
radiance and glow over an old-fashioned garden, over tall yew hedges,
and fantastic forms of green birds and heads of beasts carefully cut and
trimmed, over clumps of late roses and rough tangles of marguerites and
potentillas, of stiff zinnias and rich-hued snapdragons.

Through the open window came the sound of wood knocking against wood, of
exclamations of annoyance or triumph as the game proceeded, and every
now and then a ripple of prolonged laughter, girlish, fresh, pure as the
fragrant air, clear as the last notes of the cuckoo before he speaks his
final farewell to summer.

Every time that echo of youth and gayety penetrated into the
oak-raftered dining-room, Master Hymn-of-Praise Busy pursed his thick
lips in disapproval, whilst the younger man, had he dared, would no
doubt have gone to the window, and leaning out as far as safety would
permit, have tried to catch a glimpse of the skittle alley and of a
light-colored kirtle gleaming among the trees. But as it was he caught
the older man's stern eyes fixed reprovingly upon him, he desisted from
his work of dusting and polishing, and, looking up to the heavy oak-beam
above him, he said with becoming fervor:

"Lord! how beautifully thou dost speak, Master Busy!"

"Get on with thy work, Master Courage," retorted