Year: 1874

part of their stock in trade. This fellow,
for anything we know to the contrary, may
be one of the two mon who broke out of a
London prison t'other day, come down to
this little place to hide till the affair has
blown over" Seeing, however, that An
ME was inclined to lapse into "moist re-
lentment," added, with my usual good
nature "But don't distress yourself
about it it may turn out all right, you
know and 1 can ask him for his refer
ences when he comes tomorrow"


Punctual to appointment, Mr.. Twoshoes
arrived at noon the following day and l
may here say that my wiie's description of
him was so close and faithful, that can
find nothing to add to it. A portmanteau
and writing-case formed the whole Of our
new lodger's luggage.


"Mr. Starting, IsupposeP" he said, with
pleasant smile, and a hearty shake Of the
hand 81 hope we shall suit one another /;
at least am sure it shall not be my fault
if we don't Fine old city this of yours"
he went on, after we had introduced him





it already. flatter myself that have al
ways retained dash of poetry in my COM
position, Notwithstanding that my life has
been hard and practical one and if any
thing could revive that sentiment within
my breast, it would be the sight of your
grand old cathedral and may tell you,
in confidence, that when |, James Two
shoes, was rambling through its aisles this
morning, felt more than halfinclned to
to try my hand at a sonnet"


He sat down as he said this, and laughed
in hearty way that it did one good to
listen to- Who would ask such a man for
references? From that moment gave up
the idea as an absurdity.


"Your good lady," he went on, "has, l
presume, told you that am only here for
short time. My stay may be limited to
three weeks, or it may extend over three
months. For my part, Pm fellow who
always makes point of giving way to my
whims. So long as place takes my fancy,
there l stick, as fast as a barnacle,- till
some fine morning whim pops into my
brain, and then, hey, presto Pm off by the
first train-whither know, at the time, no
more than the man in the moon. Rather
an uncomfortable, vagabond sort Of exist
ence, you probably think. So it is. grant
it, But what can fellow do whose
whims are the master of him? Give way
to them, of course and that's just what
do. Well, WE'LL" he went on, "I've seen
many more lively and populous place
than Markhallow that hasn't pleased me
half so well. I'll take a outlet for dinner,
if you please; and any little pastry you
may have on hand"


saw nothing more of Mr.. Twoshoes that
day, for when l reached home in the eve.
ming, he was seated upstairs in his OWL
room, as my wife told me, smoking an inn.
mense meerschaum, in company with some
| gin-and-water and newspaper. To say
that my wife and l were prepossessed il
favor of our new lodger, is merely to state
the bare fact of the case. We were de
lighted with him, and felt sure that hC
would bear comparison with even such 9
model individual as the Rev. Mr.. Adol
phus.


Mr.. Twoshoes went out in the course O
the following forenoon, and shortly return
ed, bringing with him a canary and cage
which he proceeded to hang up in his room
with evident delight and on the birC
furniuc, o,,t 20 ha N ca.,,o,,, .-l,s.AIo,, 10 l..
Annie and me specially upstairs to listen t
it, and give him our opinion as to its quail
fications In the course of this day, too
we discovered that our lodger was per
former on the flute. We heard him tootle
tootle-ing in his rooms in wandering
aimless sort of way for some minutes be
fore he settled down into any tune but h,
seemed to get into the proper groove a
last, and then went on with one tune afte
another from tea-tiine till dusk. l canno
say that he impressed me as being YER
good player; and all his tunes were Of al
old-fashioned, sentimental kind, such a
had had their day, and gone out Of vogue
dozen years before indeed, to hear hin
at dusk, tootling feebly through his opel
window, you would have taken him to b
some love-sick swain of eighteen, rathe
than the hard-headed practical man of th
world he laugbingly declared himself t
be.


At the end Of a week, Annie and wer
still as far as ever from being able to max
out the profession Of Mr.. Twoshoes, thougI
we considered the question in all its bear
ings, and gave due weight in our delibera