DYER'S HOLLOW. 77 



going. He entertained a very decided 

 opinion that he shouldn't like to live there; 

 a wholesome aversion, I am bound to main- 

 tain, dear Uncle Yenner to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. 



A stranger was not an every-day sight in 

 Dyer's Hollow, I imagine, and as I went up 

 and down the road a good many times in the 

 course of my visit, I came to be pretty well 

 known. So it happened that a Western 

 Islands woman came to her front door once, 

 broom in hand and the sweetest of smiles on 

 her face, and said, " Thank you for that five 

 cents you gave my little boy the other day." 

 "Put that in your pocket," I had said, and 

 the obedient little man did as he was bid- 

 den, without so much as a side glance at the 

 denomination of the coin. But he forgot 

 one thing, and when his mother asked him, 

 as of course she did, for mothers are all 

 alike, "Did you thank the gentleman?" he 

 could do nothing but hang his head. Hence 

 the woman's smile and "thank you," which 

 made me so ashamed of the paltriness of the 

 gift (Thackeray never saw a boy without 

 wanting to give him a sovereign /) that my 

 mention of the matter here, so far from in- 



