ght;
"and do not be angry with me, for I have already kissed thee."

"Then thou art surely my brave lord," said Lady Clare; "but how wilt
thou prove thyself?"

"By the golden ring with seven gems which I divided with thee when I
left," answered the knight. "Here is my half; where is thine?"

"My daughters," cried the Lady Clare, "bring hither my half of the ring,
for your father is here to claim it! But, oh, my husband, joy at seeing
thee again had nigh made thee a widower."

GOOD ST. JAMES, AND THE MERRY BARBER OF COMPOSTELLA.

Just close to the cathedral of Compostella lived a barber whose real
name was Pedro Moreno, but who was better known by that of El Macho,
"the mule," because he was so stubborn that if he happened to be playing
the guitar, he would not leave off though a dozen customers were waiting
to be shaved. But in Spain a barber also applies leeches, draws teeth,
and extracts corns, so that it was very annoying for a man who was
suffering from tooth-ache, and wanted his tooth taken out or stopped, to
have to wait until the barber had finished playing on the guitar.

He was also a soothsayer, and could repeat the whole of the prophetical
_Buena Dicha_ by heart. He was, in fact, the most useful man in
Compostella, and had cultivated the art of shaving the face and head
from the commencement which consists in watching the flies when
standing close to the master who is showing off his skill on a customer,
to being able to play the guitar with such proficiency that, holding the
neck in his left hand and pressing the cords with the fingers, he shall,
by thumping the instrument on the big toe of his left foot, cause it to
vibrate the air of the immortal _Cachucha_ or the _Bolero_, while with
his right hand he plays the castanets.

A barber may have his brass chin-basins, which hang outside the door,
burnished every day; his fly-catcher renovated every month; his bottles
containing leeches nice and clean; and he may know all the scandal of
the town, which is decidedly a part of his duty; but if he cannot play
the guitar and the castanets at the same time--which he can only do by
calling the big toe of his left foot into requisition--he must not be
considered a barber of the first class. He may do for shaving poor
priests and water-carriers; but he may not shave an abbot, nor an
archbishop, still less a grandee of Spain, who may sit before the king
with his hat on.

In other countries the position