happen more than once a year.'

'Nor less,' spoke up a woman. 'For 'tis best to get your family over and
done with, as soon as you can, so as to be all the earlier out of the fag
o't.'

'And what may be this glad cause?' asked the stranger.

'A birth and christening,' said the shepherd.

The stranger hoped his host might not be made unhappy either by too many
or too few of such episodes, and being invited by a gesture to a pull at
the mug, he readily acquiesced. His manner, which, before entering, had
been so dubious, was now altogether that of a careless and candid man.

'Late to be traipsing athwart this coomb--hey?' said the engaged man of
fifty.

'Late it is, master, as you say.--I'll take a seat in the chimney-corner,
if you have nothing to urge against it, ma'am; for I am a little moist on
the side that was next the rain.'

Mrs. Shepherd Fennel assented, and made room for the self-invited comer,
who, having got completely inside the chimney-corner, stretched out his
legs and his arms with the expansiveness of a person quite at home.

'Yes, I am rather cracked in the vamp,' he said freely, seeing that the
eyes of the shepherd's wife fell upon his boots, 'and I am not well
fitted either. I have had some rough times lately, and have been forced
to pick up what I can get in the way of wearing, but I must find a suit