y of them
nodded to him in a friendly way, and a few came up and spoke to him.
One or two told him they considered it "rale 'andsome" of him to come.
Bob nodded back, and said nothing.

He stood by, solemnly, while the final sad rites were being performed,
and lingered even after all was over. At last, however, he heaved a
deep sigh and turned to go. Mrs. Wainwright tenderly supported his
left elbow and cast a tragic glance round.

"I doubt it's been too mich for him," she sobbed--she always sobbed at
funerals, being a very feeling woman, but on this occasion she
surpassed herself, some of the Upton folk indeed thought it was scarce
decent. Young Bob and Tom began to blubber too; Polly remarked to
Annie that "Feyther'd go next for sure." Friends and neighbours
gathered round with long faces and sympathetic murmurs. Robert
Wainwright, however, pushed them aside and hobbled forward a few paces
without speaking; then he suddenly halted and jerked his thumb over
his shoulder.

"Well," he said with a chuckle, "_he_ walked on Club Day--ah, he
did--but I've walked to his buryin', so I reckon I've cotched him up.
I wonder who's th' owdest member now!"

THE CONQUEST OF RADICAL TED

It was Saturday afternoon, and Ted Wharton and Joe Lovelady had left
off work early, as was their custom on that day of the week. They were
now betaking themselves with solemn satisfaction to the "Thornleigh
Arms," where a certain portion of their weekly wage would presently
transfer itself from their own pockets to that of its jovial landlord.
Joe Lovelady was a great, soft, lumbering fellow, who was considered
rather a nonentity in Thornleigh; but Ted Wharton was a very different
person. He was the village Radical--an adventurous spirit who, not
content with spelling out his newspaper conscientiously on Sunday, was
wont to produce, even on week-day afternoons, sundry small,
ill-printed sheets, from which he would read out revolutionary
sentiments the like of which had never before been heard in
Thornleigh. For the most part his neighbours considered it extremely
foolish of Ted to be "weerin' his brass on sich like," when a ha'porth
of twist would have been so much more satisfactory. They cared nothing
at all about Home Rule, and did not see that the labour question in
any way bore upon their own case. What they wanted to know was when
Government was going to raise the price of wheat, and what was the use
of growing 'taters when it was