curiosity, and made no observation but one. This was drawn from him when, after a distance of thirty miles had been travelled by rail, he saw the familiar skeleton frame above a coal-mine.

6

'It's been fields for ever so long,' said Daniel, and now we'm a-gettin' among the coal again.'

But before he was settled in his new home he had to spend a day or two at the local hotel, a little countryfied house with a bowling-green behind it. He sat there in the snuggery most of his time beside the fire, and once or twice gave orders to which to which nobody attended, evidently imagining himself back at the Saracen.

6

'They'n gone an' changed the shelves an' the bottles, Dinah,' he complained; an' instaed o' the clock bein' wheer it used to be, they'n stuck it up at my back. It nigh on

breaks a man's neck to look an' see what time it is.'

'Never mind, dear,' said Dinah, reading these signs; we'll have everything right by

an' by. An' then you'll be comfortable again, won't you?

'You bide wi' me, my gell,' answered Daniel, 'an' you'll be all right. Eh?'

'Oh, yes,' said Dinah soothingly, thinking that the old man wandered. But he had something on his mind, though it was perhaps the last thing in the world that Dinah was likely to think of. The thing was on his mind, and yet was somehow not to be got at until on the second day, after sitting dull-eyed and silent for two or three hours, he suddenly arose and called loudly for Jane and Mary. Jane and Mary, late maids at the Saracen, were miles away, but one of the young women of the house answered his call. He peered at her with a glance of no recognition at first, but in a while he grasped his own purpose, and hooking her towards him with a forefinger, he asked : 'Theer's a lawyer i' the town, ain't theer?' 'Yes, sir,' said the girl; 'several.'

6

Very well,' said Daniel; 'you send for one of 'em, d'ye hear. An' theer's a shillin' Send a lad as can run sharp, and let

for you.

him fatch the best lawyer i' the plaäs.' The girl took the shilling, but stood looking at him as if uncertain to obey. 'Don't you be afeard o' me,' Daniel went on, seating himself by the fire once more. "I want a lawyer. I ain't all I used to be, but I feel well an' bright to-day, an' I've got a lot o' business to do. Fatch a lawyer, an' let me do it while theer's time.'

'Very well, sir,' said the girl; and going out, she despatched the messenger, a stable-boy, who, being impressed with a sense that the business was urgent, ran as if for a midwife, and alarmed a respectable elderly solicitor so much that he ran after the boy all the way back to the inn, to the great wonderment of the inhabitants, who had never seen him run for forty years past.

The landlord was in the snuggery, mounting guard as it were over Daniel, when the solicitor arrived.

'Be you a lawyer?' asked Daniel.

Yes, sir, I am,' returned the newcomer somewhat out of breath with his exertions.

You can draw up a will all right? Eh?'

'Certainly.'

'So as theer can't be no manner o' doubt about it?'

'Certainly,' said the solicitor-though, being a man of some experience, he saw the boldness of the assertion.

‘Then I, Dan'l Banks, late o' the parish o' Bramwich, do give an' bequeath everythin' of which I die possessed to my daughter Dinah.'

'You wish me to draw up a will to that effect?'

Course I do,' returned Daniel petulantly. 'What else did I send for you for?' 'Do you wish me to specify the properties?' asked the solicitor.

6 Does it matter?' asked Daniel. Can't I will 'em in a lump?

If you wish to do so, certainly.'

Very well, then,' answered Daniel, 'put 'em in a lump. All to my daughter Dinah. An' look sharp about it, mister, for I'm a-get

tin' on ' years, an' I do't feel much like i' wearin', I can tell you.'

The solicitor asked the necessary questions,

took the necessary notes, and went his way. Next morning he brought the will, and read it over to the old man, who signed it. The landlord and the solicitor's clerk also signed it, Daniel paid the bill, and the thing was

over.

6

'Now, you wouldn't ha' thought,' said Daniel, addressing the landlord, as an ode mon like me, as has got maybe on'y a day or two to last, ud be sich a Gawby as to wait till now afore mekin' his will, would you?'

'Well,' said the landlord, who was of a curious turn, 'that depends on what you've got to leave, you know.'

'So it does, mate,' said Daniel, who saw his drift, and was equal to him. So it does.' But he could not resist the desire to say that Dinah would be pretty warm when he was gone -pretty warm. Warmer than most, he added, warming with the theme. And indeed Daniel had a good deal of property down in the old country in one form or another, and a balance at the bank, since the sale of the Saracen, the figures of which might have startled some people.