The Eambles of an Idler 



less. It requires but a thin film of mud to con- 

 ceal archaeological prizes effectually, so my fail- 

 ure was but negative evidence; all of which 

 should be remembered and unfortunate conclu- 

 sions would be avoided. What I did find was a 

 pewter button. It might have belonged to the 

 coat of the first miller. It is not always safe to 

 say, even to one's self, ''it might have been." 

 Innocent words in themselves, but how they can 

 play hob with the facts ! They can distort our 

 mental visions until the world turns upside down 

 and we never suspect how we are fooled. When 

 you find pewter buttons label them as such and 

 until you find the coat from which they came, do 

 not venture to comment. Excellent advice ; but 

 how prosy becomes the day's walk when you 

 cannot indulge your imagination. Do not but- 

 tons prove that there were coats, just as the 

 foot-print before me proves a man has recently 

 passed by? All my life a snapper up of uncon- 

 sidered trifles, I venture to speak with a trifle of 

 confidence. There is, however, one really safe 

 line of thought when discarded odds and ends 

 are gathered up. Buttons, for instance, are like 

 Indian flint arrow-points, almost meaningless of 

 themselves. We can think of a coat when we 



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