ts
through the medium of brass-rimmed spectacles. Shaking her head at Anne
till the glasses shone like two moons, she said, 'Ah, ah; I zeed ye! If
I had only kept on my short ones that I use for reading the Collect and
Gospel I shouldn't have zeed ye; but thinks I, I be going out o' doors,
and I'll put on my long ones, little thinking what they'd show me. Ay, I
can tell folk at any distance with these--'tis a beautiful pair for out
o' doors; though my short ones be best for close work, such as darning,
and catching fleas, that's true.'

'What have you seen, Granny Seamore?' said Anne.

'Fie, fie, Miss Nancy! you know,' said Granny Seamore, shaking her head
still. 'But he's a fine young feller, and will have all his uncle's
money when 'a's gone.' Anne said nothing to this, and looking ahead with
a smile passed Granny Seamore by.

Festus, the subject of the remark, was at this time about
three-and-twenty, a fine fellow as to feet and inches, and of a
remarkably warm tone in skin and hair. Symptoms of beard and whiskers
had appeared upon him at a very early age, owing to his persistent use of
the razor before there was any necessity for its operation. The brave
boy had scraped unseen in the out-house, in the cellar, in the wood-shed,
in the stable, in the unused parlour, in the cow-stalls, in the barn, and
wherever he could set up his triangular bit of looking-glass without
observation, or extemporize a mirror by sticking up his hat on the
outside of a window-pane. The result now was that, did he neglect to use
the instrument he once had trifled with, a fine rust broke out upon his
countenance on the first day, a golden lichen on the second, and a fiery
stubble on the third to a degree which admitted of no further
postponement.

His disposition divided naturally into two, the boastful and the
cantankerous. When Festus put on the big pot, as it is classically
called, he was quite blinded ipso facto to the diverting effect of that
mood and manner upon others; but when disposed to be envious or
quarrelsome he was rather shrewd than otherwise, and could do some pretty
strokes of satire. He was both liked and abused by the girls who knew
him, and though they were pleased by his attentions, they never failed to
ridicule him behind his back. In his cups (he knew those vessels, though
only twenty-three) he first became noisy, then excessively friendly, and
then invariably nagging. During childhood he had made himse