74 INTERMENT OF BONES AND TROUBLES. 



dream, and his dreamy chase, led by the phantom light ; at 

 least Tim, yon may be sure, thought so ; and when (as was 

 fitting) the discovered bones, whether of the little knight or 

 of some other little man, were duly deposited in the church- 

 yard, the namesake of Sir Timothy verily believed that he had 

 been made the happy instrument of giving rest to his wander- 

 ing spirit. Let this have been as it may, there was no 

 denying but that from the hour nearly of young Tomkins' birth 

 there had been kept up a strange sort of connection between 

 the defunct knight and his namesake of lo\v degree; and even 

 still it seemed existent, for with the poor remains (supposed) 

 of Sir Timothy seemed interred the worst troubles of Tim. 



His bodily frame continued, of course, weak, his constitu- 

 tion feeble, and all might read in his prematurely aged face 

 that he was not likely to reach the fall age of man lie had 

 had already the days of "labour and sorrow" which are 

 usually appended to our three-score years and ten. Yet from 

 that memorable night of the longest day, when he followed 

 the single " corpse light," as if it were the star of his destiny, 

 even to the brink of destruction, his hitherto dark and gloomy 

 and solitary life became comparatively bright and social. "Tall 

 Joe," his preserver, continued, ever after, his warm friend and 

 sturdy protector whensoever needed, and became his fellow- 

 lodger, with the good woman who had nursed him through 

 his illness, and who afterwards tenanted Dame Huggins' cot- 

 tage. The fund furnished by that worthy's compensatory 



