"I don't believe he thought anything of the sort. Did he say so?"

"Well, no, he didn't; but I have no doubt he felt it in some way a sort of
relief."

"That is all very fine. I know, when I have been down to his place in the
country between voyages, I have always been as well behaved as if I had
been a model mid."

"Well, I have heard some tales of your doings, Bertie, that didn't seem
quite in accord with the character you give yourself."

"Oh, of course I had a few larks! You cannot expect a fellow who has been
away from England for a year to walk about as soberly as if he were a
Methodist parson!"

"No, I should not expect that, Bertie. But, on the other hand, I should
hardly have expected that he would, for example, risk breaking his neck by
climbing up to the top of the steeple and fastening a straw-hat on the
head of the weathercock."

"It gave it a very ornamental appearance; and that weathercock was never
before watched so regularly by the people of the village as it was from
that time till the hat was blown away in a gale."

"That I can quite believe. Still, Mr. Barnett told me that the rector
lodged a complaint about it."

"He might complain as much as he liked; there is no law in the land, as
far as I know, that makes the fixing of a straw-hat upon a weathercock a