194 OCTOBER 



other place in the county which has turquoise-blue 

 gates. Jim's guilty face, when he met me on the 

 doorstep, betrayed his responsibility without any 

 hope of disguise. It appears that a worthy youth 

 in the village has lately taken to carpentering as 

 a means of livelihood, and his master has palmed 

 off a quantity of paint material on the guileless lad 

 at a tempting price. He, being seized in his turn 

 with the lust of profit-making, confided the news of 

 his purchase to Jim, and begged permission to 

 adorn our premises, and Jim, though he must have 

 known full well how detestable it would look, 

 weakly consented. The result is amazement. I 

 cannot see why the boy, simply because he is a 

 good boy and an industrious and dutiful boy, should 

 be allowed to disfigure us so completely, but Jim, of 

 course, disagrees with me. He says he thought 

 that the boy probably knew best, and at any rate 

 he had fully made up his mind on the subject before 

 he broached it to Jim. I am certain that if he had 

 wished to paint the gates orange colour, orange 

 colour they would have been by this time, so 

 perhaps there is something to be thankful for after 

 all. At any rate, I did not feel justified in betraying 

 all the wrath I felt, for Jim was obviously gloomy 

 about some other matter, which I made it my busi- 

 ness to discover. His tenderness for worthy and 

 dutiful village boys is extended to the lower brute 

 creation, and it was an interview with the village 

 butcher, ten minutes before my appearance, which 

 had annoyed him. He called upon Mr. Griskin to 

 speak about some Parish Council business, and 

 found that excellent tradesman in the act of promis- 



