es the tale resonant all down the hall so that the youngest
hears it far away from the fire and knows, and dreams of the day when
perhaps he will tell himself why the milkman shudders when he
perceives the dawn.

Not as one tells some casual fact is it told, nor is it commented on
from man to man, but it is told by that great fire only and when the
occasion and the stillness of the room and the merit of the wine and
the profit of all seem to warrant it in the opinion of the five
deputed men: then does one of them tell it, as I have said, not
heralded by any master of ceremonies but as though it arose out of the
warmth of the fire before which his knotted hands would chance to be;
not a thing learned by rote, but told differently by each teller, and
differently according to his mood, yet never has one of them dared to
alter its salient points, there is none so base among the Company of
Milkmen. The Company of Powderers for the Face know of this story and
have envied it, the Worthy Company of Chin-Barbers, and the Company of
Whiskerers; but none have heard it in the Milkmen's Hall, through
whose wall no rumour of the secret goes, and though they have invented
tales of their own Antiquity mocks them.

This mellow story was ripe with honourable years when milkmen wore
beaver hats, its origin was still mysterious when smocks were the
vogue, men asked one another when Stuarts were on the throne (and only
the Ancient Company knew the answer) why the milkman shudders when he
perceives the dawn. It is all for envy of this tale's reputation that
the Company of Powderers for the Face have invented the tale that they
too tell of an evening, "Why the Dog Barks when he hears the step of
the Baker"; and because probably all men know that tale the Company of
the Powderers for the Face have dared to consider it famous. Yet it
lacks mystery and is not ancient, is not fortified with classical
allusion, has no secret lore, is common to all who care for an idle
tale, and shares with "The Wars of the Elves," the Calf-butcher's
tale, and "The Story of the Unicorn and the Rose," which is the tale
of the Company of Horse-drivers, their obvious inferiority.

But unlike all these tales so new to time, and many another that the
last two centuries tell, the tale that the milkmen tell ripples wisely
on, so full of quotation from the profoundest writers, so full of
recondite allusion, so deeply tinged with all the wisdom of man and
instructive wit