paper caps and imitation jewellery; and it was a merry scene when all
around the tables were decorated in the most incongruous fashion. Old
Tricker happened to become possessed of a plain gilt wedding-ring, and
of course chaff was levelled at him from all sides: "Ah, Tricker; sly
dog, sly dog!" and so on. He was greatly pleased, accepting
good-naturedly the part of pantaloon of the piece; and I am sure, from
his beaming smiles, he felt, for a time at least, dozens of years
younger.

Years before, when still able to do a good day's work, he walked to
Ipswich to revisit his old home, a distance of about 160 miles, which
he accomplished in four days, and returned in the same time. He had
been specially struck by the building of a new post-office there--this
must have been at least thirty years before the time of which I am
writing. One of my brothers who lived near Ipswich was visiting me,
and I introduced him to the old man, knowing that they would have
common interests. No sooner did Tricker hear that my brother had just
come from Ipswich than he inquired anxiously if the new post-office
was finished. "Oh yes, and pulled down some years ago, and a new one
built!" Tricker was astonished; the years had evidently slipped by him
unnoticed, and no record of dates remained in his memory.

Tricker often got a little mixed in the names of novelties or in
unusual words. I chanced to pass him one day along the road, on my
omnicycle, and next time I saw him he referred to it, adding: "I
didn't know as you'd got a phlorsopher (velocipede and philosopher)"!
Some of my land had been occupied by the Romans in very distant days,
and coins and pottery were frequently found. Tricker, having heard of
the Romans, also of Roman Catholics, jumbled them together, and
"reckoned" that the former inhabitants of these fields were "some of