subjects; his decision was considered final on all questions, and
he guided them in their courtships as well as on their death-beds.
He christened their children and officiated at their weddings,
marrying them over the tongs.

The storm-stead show attracted old and young--to looking on from the
outside. In the day-time the wagons and tents presented a dreary
appearance, sunk in snow, the dogs shivering between the wheels, and
but little other sign of life visible. When dusk came the lights
were lit, and the drummer and fifer from the booth of tumblers were
sent into the town to entice an audience. They marched quickly
through, the nipping, windy streets, and then returned with two or
three score of men, women, and children, plunging through the snow
or mud at their heavy heels. It was Orpheus fallen from his high
estate. What a mockery the glare of the lamps and the capers of the
mountebanks were, and how satisfied were we to enjoy it all without
going inside. I hear the "Waterloo veterans" still, and remember
their patriotic outbursts:

On the sixteenth day of June, brave boys, while cannon loud did
roar,
We being short of cavalry they pressed on us full sore;
But British steel soon made them yield, though our numbers was but
few,
And death or victory was the word on the plains of Waterloo.

The storm-stead shows often found it easier to sink to rest in a
field than to leave it. For weeks at a time they were snowed up,
sufficiently to prevent any one from Thrums going near them, though
not sufficiently to keep the pallid mummers indoors. That would in