The Broad Highway

"Why, I think you were perhaps a trifle hasty," said I.

"Oh, ye do, do ye?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"An' for why?"

"Well, you will probably remember that the hat had a band round

it--"

"Ay, all wore away it were too--"

"And that in the band was a buckle--"

"Ay, all scratched an' rusty it were--well?"

"Well, that tarnished buckle was of silver--"

"Silver!" gasped the man, his jaw falling.

"And easily worth five shillings, perhaps more, so that I think

you were, upon the whole, rather hasty." Saying which, I

finished my ale and, taking up my staff, stepped out into the

sunshine.