how does it work?"

"It is beautifully simple. I am told that a bazaar is contemplated and
asked if I will assist. Very well, I send my cushion. That is quite good
enough; no one would expect me to do more. Then I go, on the appointed
day, buy the cushion, and walk out with an enormous parcel for all the
world to see that I have done my duty. Then it goes back in its box. The
only bazaars that I am unable to assist are those which occur (as they
sometimes do) when my cushion happens to be out."

"And is it never sold?"

"Well, _look_ at it!" said Father William. "Of course it had to be of
such a nature that there was no danger of its going off too quick. I
used always to go early on the first day to make sure. But since the
last time it was re-covered I have had more confidence in its staying
powers. I find there is no particular hurry."

"Do you put a price on it?" I asked.

"Oh, no. I don't like to do that. That might put me in an awkward
position if it came out. But I find it fairly exciting on each occasion
to discover what I shall have to pay for it. It is generally more
expensive now than it used to be in the old days. I suppose it is the
rise in the cost of living. But I am seldom satisfied, either way. If it
is too cheap I naturally feel rather slighted, seeing that it was I who
sent it; and if it is too dear of course I am annoyed because I have to
buy it. And it fluctuates extraordinarily. I have more than once bought
it in at half-a-crown and come home burning with indignation, and, if
you will believe me, there was a blackguard at that big Sale of Work for
the Territorials in the autumn who had the effrontery to charge me a
guinea and a half. I was furious with him."

"I wish you would lend it to me, Father William," said I, after a pause.
"We are getting up a Jumble Sale in Little Sudbury."

"No," said Father William firmly, "no. Little Sudbury is barred. The
last time it was there on sale there was a very painful scene. I had
arrived rather late, I remember, and I found my cushion actually being
sold by auction along with a pair of worsted slippers and a woolly door
mat--in one lot. I thought it showed very poor taste. Besides, it is
already booked to appear six times in the next fortnight."

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Dear Old Lady._ "You have a picture in the window marked
ten-and-six, by a Mr. Holbein. Could you tell me if that is an original
painting or merely