CHAPTER II.
THE HISTORIAN OF THE WAYRING FAMILY.
THE bamboo having been disposed of I was returned to the show-case, where I spent two very lonely days. The rods around me were worth more money than I was, and feeling their importance they would scarcely speak to me, even to answer a civil question; so all I could do was to hold my peace and listen to their conversation. But fate had decreed that I should not long remain a captive. One afternoon there came into the store a gentleman in gold spectacles, accompanied by two bright boys about fifteen years of age. They must have been well known to the proprietor, for he shook their hands with all the cordiality which shopkeepers know how to assume toward their rich patrons, and greeted them with:
"Ah, colonel, I am glad to see you. Well, Joseph, have you come after that rod?"
