Trying To Change A Sovereign.

projecting through the feruleless scabbard , " speering" for a " Avee bit hayring" ancl change of " tAva farthings for a baivbee "; her third , of a recusant who would clap a loaded and cocked petronel to her breast and demand the contents of her till , and ivho , when his steeple-crowned sombrero should fall off in the inevitable struggle , would display the small Avhite circle of a tonsure cut in the centre of his tangled looks .

Her first misgiving AA as right . The stranger , a stern dark-moustachioed man in a slouched hat , ancl shrouded in an ample cloak , and wearing large buff boots and a tremendous rapier , demanded " Coals ! " Several tons ! Ancl firewood !

Many gross of bundles ! From fear , so she afterwards said , and for prompt cash , a motive she never denied having influenced her at the moment , she agreed to supply him . She made out the invoice . The goods ivere to be deliA'ered next morning at a house in Lambeth , the address of which was furnished .

The invoice was , at the dictation of the cloaked customer , made out in the name of Mr . Percy . He resided in a tenement adjacent to the Parliament House at Westminster . Mr . Percy was a gentleman pensioner in the service of his Majesty . Consequently , he Avas a civil servant . Therefore her customer produced a co-operative store ticket and demanded

the usual discount . His name , he said , Avas John Johnson . "Hatha !! " ( The parenthetical cachinnation seemed unnecessary , Mrs . Critchett thought . ) He ivas Mr . Percy ' s " own man . " ( "Ha ! ha ! ! " again . )

He snatched the pen ivith Avhich the widow Avith trembling fingers had made out the invoice , ancl filled up a cheque for the price of his purchase ( less the discount ) on the Jerkback Bank . The document—blank as to the amount—when produced by Mr . Johnson was already signed "CATESBT & Co . ( LIMITED" )!

More parenthesis ( in a deep bass ) " Ha ! ha ! ! ha !! ! " CHAPTER III . THE IAYTSJA ; HOA 58 B IS STATS GATE . I TRUST I am not wasting my resplendent literary talents on reader so

any benighted as never to have beard of Pedlar ' s Acre . Is not the illustrious hawker Avho has giA'en a title to that ] 3 iece of square measure commemorated ( with his clog ) in a stained glass window in the church of St . Mary , Lambeth ? Go to , then ! And now you knoiv , or at least you ought to know , where Stangate is , and to Stangate Mrs . Critchett ' s customer was bound Avhen he left her establishmentafter having completed the commercial transaction

, narrated in the last cha 2 Dter . That good lady herself sat fumbling the document taken by her between her fingers and thumbs , ancl looking at it ivith an expression that by no means implied confidence . " I ' m like my poor clear man that ' s gone , " she reflected ; " I don't care for this paper rubbish ; I'd rather have the read ilt a-chinking . in the till .

y g Hows ' ever , I'll be at this here blessed bank tbe first thing to-morrow morning , as soon as ever they ojiens their doors ; ancl if I touch the rhino , why I'll trot off to Cockerill ' s , or Riokett Smiths ' , or Booth Brothers ' , and see as Mr . Percy has bis Wallscnd afore you can say Jack Robinson . "