CHAP. X.] His Wallets Emptied. 177 
which he had pinned into the crown of his hat, were all 
right. His hat was usually two-storied; we wish we could 
have given a section of it. The lewsr part contained his 
head, and the other, above it, separated by a thin piece of 
board, contained mosses, birds’ eggs, butterflies, insects, and 
such-like. 
He next proceeded to take off some of his wallets; but, 
just as he had begun to remove them, he heard the girls be- 
hind him twittering and giggling. Turning round, he saw 
one of them pointing to his back, and trying to suppress 
her mirth. He could not imagine the reason. Another 
and yet another stifled laugh! On his looking round 
again, they rushed out of the room; and then he heard 
them exploding with laughter. The cause of their merri- 
ment was this: the storm of rain had soaked Edward to 
the skin. Every pocket and wallet was full of chip-boxes 
and water. The glue of the boxes had melted; the ants, 
worms, slugs, spiders, caterpillars, and such-like, had all 
escaped, and were mixed up in a confused mass. They 
shortly began to creep out of the innumerable pockets in 
which they had been contained. It was because the girls 
had seen the mixture of half-drowned spiders, beetles, ants, 
and caterpillars creeping up the strange man’s back, that 
they rushed from the place, and laughed their full out-of- 
doors. 
Edward was now left to himself. The girls had doubt- 
less gone to fetch their mother. He began to think of 
beating a retreat, as he seemed to have been the cause, in 
some way, of the girls leaving the house. But at that mo- 
ment a woman of prodigious size and attitude appeared at 
the threshold. She stood stock-still, and looked at the 
stranger furiously. He addressed her, but she gave no re- 
ply. He addressed her again, louder; but she was still si- 
lent. He looked at her again. In one hand she grasped 
a most formidable-looking axe, while in the other she held 
what looked like the half of a young tree, She was tall, 
g* 
