e
intrinsically probable than Daffodil or Daverill, and forgot both names
promptly. For a subsequent mention of him as Devilskin, when he referred
to the incident later in the day, can scarcely be set down to a
recollection of the name. It was quite as much an appreciation of the
owner.

"But what's your consarn with any of 'em, Mo?" said Mr. Jerry.

Uncle Moses took his pipe out of his mouth to say, almost
oratorically:--"Don't you _re_-member, Jerry, me telling you--Sunday six
weeks it was--about a loafing wagabond who came into this Court to hunt
up a widder named Daverill or Daffodil, or some such a name?" Uncle
Moses paused a moment. A plate had fallen in the kitchen. Nothing was
broke, Aunt M'riar testified, and closed the door. Uncle Mo
continued:--"I told you Davenant, because of young Radishes. But I'll
pound it I was right and he was wrong. Don't you call to mind,
Jeremiah?" For Uncle Mo often addressed his friend thus, for a greater
impressiveness. Jeremiah recalled the incident on reflection. "There you
are, you see," continued Uncle Mo. "Now you bear in mind what I tell
you, sir;"--this mode of address was also to gain force--"He's him! That
man's _him_--the very identical beggar! And this widder woman he was for
hunting up, she's his mother or his aunt."

"Or his sister--no!--sister-in-law."

"Not if she's a widder's usual age, Jerry." Uncle Mo always figured to
himself sisters, and even sisters-in-law, as essentially short of middle
life. You may remember also his peculiar view that married twins could
not survive their husbands.

"What sort of man did you make him out to be, Mo?"

"A bad sort in a turn-up with no rules. Might be handy with a knife on
occasion. Foxy sort of wiper!"

"Not your sort, Mo?"

"Too much ill-will about him. Some of the Fancy may have run into bad
feeling in my time, but mostly when they shook hands inside the ropes
they meant it. How's yourself, M'riar?" Here Aunt M'riar came in after
washing up, having apparently overheard none of the conversation.

"I'm nicely, Mo, thankee! Have you done with the paper, Mr. Alibone?...
Thanks--I'll give it to 'em upstairs.... Oh yes! I'm to rights. It was
nothing but a swimming in the head! Goodnight!" And off went Aunt
M'riar, leaving the friends to begin and end about two more pipes; to
talk over bygones of the Ring and the Turf, and to part after midnight.

* * * * *

Observe, please, that until