alert; for a new figure was seen making its slow way to the wharf,--a
new figure, and a singular one.

An old man, white-haired and wizen, with a face like a knife-blade, and
red, blinking eyes. The face wore a look of eager yet doleful
anticipation, as of a man going to execution and possessed with an
intense desire to feel the edge of the axe. His thin fingers twitched
and fumbled about his pockets, his lips moved, and he shook his head
from time to time. This old gentleman was clad in nankeen trousers of
ancient cut, a velvet waistcoat and a blue swallow-tail coat, all
greatly too large for him. His scant locks were crowned by a cheap straw
hat of the newest make, his shoes and gaiters were of a twenty-year-old
pattern. Altogether, he was not an ordinary-looking old gentleman, nor
was his appearance agreeable; but the village people took no special
notice of him, being well used to Mr. Endymion Scraper and his little
ways. They knew that he was wearing out the clothes that his extravagant
uncle had left behind him at his death, twenty years ago. They had seen
three velvet waistcoats worn out, and one of brocade; there were sixteen
left, as any woman in the village could tell you. As for the nankeen
trousers, some people said there were ten dozen of them in the great
oak chest, but that might be an exaggeration.

Walking just behind this pleasant old person, with feet that tried to go
sedately, and not betray by hopping and skippings the joy that was in
them, came the boy John; brought along in case there should be a parcel
to carry. Mr. Scraper had brought, too, his supple bamboo cane, in case
of need; it was a cane of singular parts, and had a way that was all its
own of curling about the legs and coming up "rap" against the tender
part of the calf. The boy John was intimately acquainted with the cane;
therefore, when his legs refused to go steadily, but danced in spite of