He put his spectacles to his eyes and held the book again up to the
light.

He presently said: "Luke Fuller--that is an old English name; there was
such a one who was ousted for nonconformity in the days of the
Conventicles."

He turned round and lifted his face and stood still, like a statue.

Was he going mad? Poor old Father Humphrey began to look toward the
door to see if there were clear way of escape for him should the strange
man become violent.

Presently he said:

"Earls--Barton," and lifted his brows.

Then he said:

"Mears--Ashby," and lifted his brows higher.

"What, sir, is it about Earls--Barton, and Mears--Ashby?" asked the
timid Father Humphrey.

"Oh, you are _here_. I've heard of these places before--it was many
years ago. Some folks came over to America from there."

He turned to the book again. "An Essay on the Toleration Act," said he.
"Banbury," he continued. He dropped the book by his side, and lifted his
brows again.

Poor Father Humphrey now thought that his customer had indeed gone daft,
and was beginning to repeat an old nursery rhyme that that name
suggested.

The book went up to the light again. Old Humphrey, frightened, passed
him and went to the door, so that he might run if his strange visitor
should be incited to do him harm.

Suddenly a very alarming expression came over the book-finder's face.
What would he do next, this calm, grand old man, who was going out of
his senses in this unfortunate place?

He dropped the book by his side again, and said, as in the voice of
another, a long-gone voice:

"Reuben of the Mill--Reuben of the Mill!"

Poor Father Humphrey thought he was summoning the ghost of some strange
being from the recesses of the cellar. He began to walk away, when the
supposed mind-shattered American seemed to be returning to himself, and
said in a very calm and dignified manner:

"Father Humphrey, you must think that I have been acting strangely.
There are some notes here that recall old names and places. They carried
my thoughts away back to the past."

The timid man came into the shop hopeful of a bargain.

"It is a useful book, I should think," said Franklin, as if holding
himself in restraint.

He took the two other volumes that Father Humphrey had brought him and
began to look them over.

"Father Humphrey, what do you want for the whole library of the
pamphlets?"

"I do not exactly know what price to fix upon them. They might be
valuab