udy's arm, rejected them both in favour
of my nose, kept his eyes fastened greedily upon that organ with so
desperate an air of concentration that I was quite relieved when he
tripped over a brick and fell on his back in the road.

And all this time our following grew. The news of our advent had
spread like wildfire. Old men and maidens, young men and boys, the
matron and the maid, alike came running. Altogether, Lynn Hammer was
set throbbing with an excitement such as it had not experienced since
the baker's assistant was wrongly arrested for petty larceny in 1904.

Amongst those who walked close about us, candid speculation as to the
probable venue of the performance was rife, while its style, length,
value, etc., were all frankly discussed. Many were the questions
raised, and many the inaccurate explanations accepted as to the reason
of our being; but though my companion came in for some inevitable
discussion, I was relieved to find that my panache and a comic
peculiarity of gait, which I thought it as well from time to time to
affect, proved usefully diverting.

When the crowd had begun to assume considerable proportions, Judy had
slipped her arm in mine, and an answering pressure to my encouraging
squeeze told me that she was trying to buck up as well as she could.
Good little Judy! It was an ordeal for you, but you came through it
with flying colours, though with a flaming cheek.

When we reached the triangular piece of grass that lay in front of the
village inn, I called a halt with such suddenness as to create great
confusion in the swarming ranks that followed in our wake. But while
they sorted themselves, I slipped the booth off my shoulders, gave one
long, echoing call upon the reed, and, striking an attitude, made ready
to address the expectant villagers.

After carefully polishing my nose with a silk handkerchief--an action
which met with instant approval--I selected a fat, red-faced drayman,
thanked him, and said that mine was a Bass, an assertion which found
high favour with the more immediate cronies of the gentleman in
question. Then I got to work.

After dwelling lightly on the renown in which the village of Lynn
Hammer was held throughout the countryside, not to mention a gallant
reference to the wit, beauty, and mirth which was assembled about me, I
plunged into a facetious resume of recent local events. This, of
course, came to me easily enough, but the crowd only saw therein the
lucky