THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS
cording as we were boys or girls, or little boys, she touched up her horse and drove away.
She turned at the corner to wave to us, and just as we had done waving, and were turning into the house, Albert's uncle came into our midst like a whirling wind. He was in flannels, and his shirt had no stud in at the neck, and his hair was all rumpled up and his hands were inky, and we knew he had left off in the middle of a chapter by the wildness of his eye.
"Who was that lady?" he said. "Where did you meet her?"
Mindful, as ever, of what he was told, Oswald began to tell the story from the beginning.
"The other day, protector of the poor," he began, "Dora and I were reading about the Canterbury pilgrims—"
Oswald thought Albert's uncle would be pleased to find his instructions about beginning at the beginning had borne fruit, but instead he interrupted.
"Stow it, you young duffer! Where did you meet her?"
Oswald answered briefly, in wounded accents, "Hazelbridge."
Then Albert's uncle rushed up-stairs three at a time, and as he went he called out to Oswald:
"Get out my bike, old man, and blow up the back tire."
I am sure Oswald was as quick as any one could have been, but long ere the tire was thoroughly blowed Albert's uncle appeared, with a
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