which divided her premises from
the lane, she pressed forward, and unlocked her door. Ted followed her
into the kitchen, while Joe stood without, craning forward his neck to
see what was going on in the interior of the cottage, and drawing the
back of his hand across his lips when he saw Miss Heptonstall produce
a small bottle of whisky.

"He looks a dale livelier now," remarked Ted, uncloaking the gander
and setting it on its legs on Margaret's immaculate table. "Whoa,
steady theer," as the bird began to struggle in his grasp, flapping
uneasy wings, and making a sickly attempt at a hiss.

Margaret, who had been about to uncork the bottle, paused, surveying
Victoria with her head on one side.

"Theer dunnot seem to be mich amiss, do theer?" she remarked; "it
seems a'most a pity to be givin' it sperrits. It'll upset it again as
like as not."

"Theer mun ha' been summat amiss i' th' first place, though," returned
Wharton, with a judicial air, "else it wouldn't ha' been took bad same
as it were. If I was you, Miss Heptonstall, I'd give it a drop to
strengthen its in'ards a bit."

"Ah," agreed Joe from the doorway.

Ted fumbled in his pocket and produced a large red cotton
handkerchief, which he carefully spread on the table beneath the
gander.

"It 'ud be a pity to let this here table get dirty," he observed,
looking admiringly at its spotless surface. Margaret eyed him with
more favour than she had hitherto displayed; then, smiling sourly,
began to pour out the contents of her little black bottle.

"Fill up, Miss Heptonstall, fill up!" cried Ted, energetically; "eh,
if you dunnot gi' it no more nor that, Victoria met jest as well be a
bantam. He'll noan as mich as wet that great yaller beak of his wi'
that drop."

Margaret smiled no more, but she filled up the glass. Joe, in the
doorway, cleared his throat reflectively. Ted, again encircling the
gander with his arm, forced open its beak.

"Now then," he whispered eagerly, "fotch a spoon, Miss Hep. Coom, owd
bird, this'll fettle thee up, an' no mistake."

But whether Victoria's struggles were more lively than he had
anticipated, or whether Ted purposely relaxed his hold, certain it was
that the gander, with a scream of fury, backed out of his grasp and
fluttered on to the floor; proceeding to waddle with great speed and
evident indignation across the kitchen into the yard without.

"He's teetotal," said Ted, gazing at Margaret with a twinkle in his
eye. "