led
crookedly on a post, informed those seeking such information that within
was to be found "Abishai G. W. Pepper, Tax Collector, Assessor, Boots
and Shoes Repaired." And beneath this was fastened a shingle with the
chalked notice, "Salt Hay for sale."

The boot and shoe portion of the first sign was a relic of other days.
Kyan had been a cobbler once, but it is discouraging to wait three
or four weeks while the pair of boots one has left to be resoled are
forgotten in a corner. Captain Zeb Mayo's pointed comment, "I want my
shoe leather to wear while I'm alive, not to be laid out in after I die
of old age," expressed the general feeling of the village and explained
why custom had left Mr. Pepper and flown to the more enterprising
shoemaker at "The Corners." The tax collectorship might have followed
it, but here Lavinia kept her brother up to the mark. She went with
him on his rounds and it gave her opportunity to visit, and afterwards
comment upon, every family in town.

The minister walked up the dusty lane, lifted the Pepper gate and swung
it back on its one hinge, shooed away the three or four languid and
discouraged-looking fowls that were taking a sun bath on the clam-shell
walk, and knocked at the front door. No one coming in answer to the
knock, he tried again. Then he discovered a rusty bell pull and gave it
a sharp tug. The knob came off in his hand and he hurriedly thrust it
back again into its place. Evidently, that bell was solely for ornament.

He came to the conclusion that no one was at home and felt a guilty
sense of relief in consequence. But his conscience would not let him
depart without another try, so he clenched his fist and gave the cracked
door panel a series of tremendous thumps. A thin black cat, which had
evidently been asleep beneath the step, burst from its concealment and
fled in frantic terror. Then from somewhere in the rear of the house
came the sound of a human voice.

"Hi!" it called faintly. "Whoever you be, don't bust that door down.
Come round here."

Ellery walked around the corner of the building. The voice came again.

"Say!" it wailed, "why don't you answer? Be you comin'? If you're a
peddler, you needn't."

"I'm not a peddler," was the minister's amused reply.

"Oh, ain't ye? All right. Come along, then."

Ellery "came along" as far as the angle where the ell joined the main
body of the house. So far as he could see every door and window was
closed and there were n