Sutton would admit; but no matter"Mildred, ask that young man the price of his cushion."

At that perhaps it was something in the tone of her voice-an inexplicable longing to show my independence assailed me; to look her straight in the eyeglasses and say: "No, madam, no. Take your paltry money elsewhere. Civis Romanus sum,—and it's my cushion. A large thing, but mine own." But as I stood there, bowed down like a man grown prematurely old, holding up my incubus desperately with both hands by a fold of its skin, my spirit weakened.

"What is the price of that cushion, please?" said Mildred frostily.

"Fifteen shillings spot cash," I replied. "Thank you."

They took it from me.

Somehow

they took it from me, and I stood erect again, a free man. Oh! the blessedness of that moment! Free, free, and with the best years of my life, per

Punch.

haps, still before me. I plunged gaily into the thick of the crowd, I laughed aloud, I no longer minded the band.

Then came a fleeting vision of purple-and-pink, and an anxious voice in my ear: "Good gracious! whatever have you done with It?"

"Sold it again," I said triumphantly, "for fifteen shillings."

"No! The Vicar will be pleased," she exclaimed.

"I don't see why he should be," I answered coldly, and so pushed on, heedless of the troubled wonder in her eyes.

Well, others may fly the Channel or wander hungrily in absurd realms of ice. I will not belittle their achievements. But I am the only man who ever walked out of a Church Bazaar richer than he entered it.

That is my title to Fame. I am content to let it rest at that.

Three hundred years ago the Cornish parish of S. Austell had as its vicar one Ralph May or Maye-spelling was nothing accounted of in his day; he reigned there for nearly forty years. Of his ministrations we know nothing, though we may suspect from his reliques that, like another "parson of the good old stock," he held that

"true religion was to do

As you'd be done by; which could

never mean

That he should preach three sermons in a week."

But if we are in the dark as to his care of the flock, it is quite otherwise as to the fleece, for a recent unexpected find has thrown a flood of light on his business dealings with his par

ishioners; his "journal intime," in the shape of his "Tythes-book," was discovered a few years ago among the musty records of the parish chest. It is a marvel that it should have survived the vicissitudes of three centuries-private account books mostly find their way to the flames-and indeed it may be doubted whether any similar document is still in existence; these archives, by the way, may owe their preservation to the fact that Parson May was suceeded by his son and his grandson; moreover, the vicars of S. Austell have been long lived; Stephen Hugoe was incumbent for sixty-two years, and two others for over forty years each, so that there have been fewer "new brooms" than usual to sweep out the chest. Anyhow, they

have survived, and this discolored and dilapidated ledger, the contents of which recall the tables of sines and tangents or the calculations of Arab merchants, has awakened from its long sleep to speak to us about the sweets of office and the means of subsistence and the chaffering and bargaining of an "old-time parson" in "the spacious times of Great Elizabeth." Litera scripta manet.

But let us examine it within and without. It is evidently of home manufacture; the leaves are crudely stitched together and the paper is coarse to a degree. On the side it is stated that "this book of Tythes was given by Mrs. Hugoe to Mr. Harte"Harte was a friend and flatterer of Pope and tutor to the hopeful son of Lord Chesterfield-"on his coming to the living of St. Austell in 1757." The first page is headed "St. Austell Vicaridge. Receipts in ye yeares of our Lord god 1599, 1600, 1601. R. Maye, Vic.," but the entries actually extend from 1598 to 1606-some few are as late as 1620. They profess to be in Latin, and most of them are in that language but with a curious admixture of English-the old order was then changing-an entry will sometimes begin with the one tongue and end with the other; some pages, however, are entirely in Latin and others as exclusively in English; the reader shall have an extract-only a few lines --from page 3:

[1599]

Carvarth, inhabitantes.

+ John Vyvian senr. vaccae., 5d.; vituli., 2d. ob.; herbae, 2d.; poma., 2d.; recepi 12d.

Año 1600. rec. 12d. ut in precedente [anno].

Año 1601. vaccae., 6d.; vituli., 4d. ob.; herbae., 2d.; poma., 2d.; canabi. rec.

Año 1603. vacc., 6d.; vitul., 4d. ob.;

herb., 2d.; poma., 2d.; canab., 2d.;

matrices, 1d.; pulli., 2d.; lina., 2d. privata acquisita 6d.; pro vellere lanae debito anno precedente, 16d.

It may be well, however, as Ben Johnson was not the only gifted Englishman who knew "little Latin and less Greek," if we give a little extract from another page (page 8) in a translation:

[1599] John Treleavane Owes a mortuary, 12d.; cowes, 4d.; calves, 22d.; ewes, 4d.; fruit, 2d.; grass, 2d.; private earnings, 12d. A funeral fee, 7d.; received.

1600. cows, 4d.; calves, 6d.; ewes, 4d.; fruit, 2d.; grass, 2d.; fowls, 1d.; private earnings of Nicholas, 12d.; received: private earnings of John Treleaven 12d.; received. 1601. cows, 3d.; calves, 5d.; ewes,

3d.; fruit, 4d.; grass, 4d.; private earnings, 12d.; hemp., 2d.; received.

Only a few lines, but how much do they reveal! He takes the parishioners, roughly, in their geographical order and sets down their precise dues, and each petty item had to be calculated afresh each year. But every animal in field or fold, almost every apple-tree or medlar in garth or orchard, is accounted for. Our good vicar, it must be remembered, lived on the "small tithes"-those from the cereals fell to the lay rector. But these small tithes afforded him some fine pickings; many pennies (and he does not discard halfpennies or farthings) make pounds. And how few things escaped his net! Not only did every tenth colt, calf or lamb (there is no mention of pigs) or its value fall to his share, but a tenth part of the value of each animal born; as soon as it was weanable it became titheable. Each fleece, too, was laid under contribution: "vellus lanae" is of not infrequent recurrence. And if sheep, cows or calves were sold or left the parish the claim, the lien, went with them; thus Agnes Scollier paid 22d. “pro agno ven

dito," and we often hear of "vacce delocate or boves delocati." And so sharp was his outlook that in one place he gives a list of the sheep pastured in Trewydel on 13 June 1604: "of old wethers 23; young wethers 81; old yewes 28; Rammes 3; yew hoggets 43," but this list may have reference to agistment; tithe was payable on the profits made by feeding cattle on commons or elsewhere. It was also paid on barren stock, like geldings or steers. Then there is frequent mention of hens (pulli) and geese (anser: the word is always singular, but the charge, 8d., shows that it was a flock of geese; moreover, no one would keep one goose). Eggs, too, paid their quotas, and hives; mel (honey) is occasionally mentioned. Milk did not apparently furnish him any perquisites, though in some parishes every tenth quart was left at the vicarage or in the church porch. Nor does Mr. May appear to have maintained, as some parsons were by custom bound to do, "a common Bull and a Boar

for the

increase of calves and pigs." The mention of flax or hemp reminds us that these were the days of the spinning-wheel, when every housewife made her own linen. The charges for hay seldom exceed 2d.-once it is 12d. -but three parishioners are charged vilid. apiece on hay that they had bought-probably on their profits. Not much rye was grown in this district, but rye-bread was not unknown; peas and beans were seemingly scarce.

But in this seaboard parish the Vicar's gains were much augmented by the tithe of fish, the "harvest of the sea"; such tithes, indeed, have been paid in Cornwall almost within living memory. The different boats mostly compounded for a fixed annual sum; the Trinity and the Perel [Pearl?] paid 128. each; the Colt, which seems The Saturday Review.

to have done a brisk trade in pilchards and maccrell," "xxs. and 6d." But, alas! the good man did not always get his dues, for he complains of the arreragia piscium-and not of fish alone; John Honye, for example, paid vijs. in 1602, but "he oweth other vijs." For Thos. Allyn's debts R. Tredinam had stood surety. Stephen Dadow paid 8s. 2d. for de antique (sic) per patrem debita. Farmers and graziers often compounded, as well as mariners; Easter was the usual time for settlement. The compositions do not seem to have been reduced to writing-apart from this book; probably few of Mr. May's flock could read or write, but they were made in the presence of witnesses; the agreement for 15s. de anno in annum with J. Josephe was made "testibus Wo. Carlyan et Eduardo Hooper." Most of the tithepayers seem to have toed the line in person: sometimes they got a trifle back; of Johannes Scollier, who paid xs., the Vicar records that he gave him 6d.; of Phillip Dadow that "computavit pro omnibus et est dismissus quietus." Sometimes the money was remitted by friend or neighbor-the parish then covered some 13,000 acres, so the distances were considerable. Scollier, who got the sixpence, on another occasion "solvit per manus Thome Congon"; "R. ffarrowe exoneratur per manus Johannis filii sui"-this looks as if Do receipts were furnished. There were evidently fixed days for payment, and the Vicar probably sat in the church to receive his dues; he certainly did for his Easter Offerings; he tells us what these oblacions yielded in 1600: driblets arrived most days of Easter week, the first day only 12d., the second xijs. vjd., tercio in ecclesia ijs. ijd.; on the fourth vijs. xd.; on the fifth xxxviijs. 8d., and on the last iijli js. 4d.; altogether £6 3s. 6d.

To their "Wisdom of the East" series E. P. Dutton & Co. add a little volume called "The Splendor of God." It is made up of extracts from the sacred writings of the Bahais, with an introduction by Eric Hammond, who expounds sympathetically this Persian faith of "the door."

William Stearns Davis, author of "A Friend of Cæsar" and several other historical novels, and at present Professor of History in the University of Minnesota, is the author of a convenient and compact "Outline History of the Roman Empire" from 44 B. C. to 378 A. D. It is a serviceable little volume which fills a recognized gap in historical text books for college classes. The Macmillan Co.

A useful and attractive book for children's supplementary reading in schools, or for their reading at home is Charles Morris's second book upon "Home Life in All Lands" in which the manners and customs of uncivilized peoples as to kings and their courts, laws and their penalties, courtship and marriage, travel and transportation, industries, amusements and much else beside are entertainingly described and illustrated. The J. B. Lippincott Co.

A little volume so useful that it is a marvel that no one has prepared it before is J. Walker McSpadden's "Waverley Synopses" in which, within the narrow compass of less than three hundred small but clearly printed pages, the reader will find the cast of characters and an outline of the plot of each of the Waverley novels, followed by a complete index of characters of all of them. The arrangement is chronological, in the order of the pe

riod in which the scenes are laid. The little volume should find its place on every shelf which holds the Waverleys. T. Y. Crowell & Co.

The three lectures which Professor Basil L. Gildersleeve groups under the title "Hellas and Hesperia" are printed substantially as they were delivered on the Barbour-Page Foundation at the University of Virginia. They are neither so formal nor so formidable as one might infer from the title. They are off-hand, unpedantic and illuminating discourses, directing attention to resemblances between Greek and American institutions, conditions, ways of thought and feeling, life and character. They are easy reading and the personal and reminiscent element gives them a flavor. Henry Holt & Co.

Boy readers are invited into a new and promising field of adventure in "The Boy with the U. S. Survey" by Francis Rolt-Wheeler, which opens a series which is to be devoted to stories of the United States service in different departments. The story is wrought out of actual experiences and is full of healthful excitement. The Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, who publish it, add "The Football Boys of Lakeport" to Mr. Edward Stratemeyer's Lakeport series; open "The Five Chums Series" by Norman Brainerd with "Winning his Shoulder Straps," a story of life in a military school; and offer to girl readers "The Coming of Hester" by Jean K. Baird, a story of school life, and "Mother Tucker's Seven" by Angelina W. Wray. All are illustrated.

the story perfectly, for clever Janet, having taken upon her young shoulders the heavy task of managing a company of "paying guests" during the Quebec pageants, contrives to put herself in all manner of false and awkward positions. The question of the comparative merits of the Canadian and the American occasionally ruffles the peace of the other personages, and a comic baby amuses everybody except the unfortunate having charge of him for the moment. The little company of characters includes no unworthy figures, and the young girls for whom the book is intended may imbibe some instruction in good behavior from its pages. Little, Brown & Co.

The gift of conferring dignity upon an ugly, awkward, insignificant, tactless person by the mere bestowal of all the Christian virtues is so rare that great is the daring of the author who assumes himself to possess it; but Mrs. Henry Dudeney has contrived to effect the miracle in "Trespass." It is not, to tell the truth, a literary season favorable to the elegant sinner; he has twice been scientifically flayed-both times by women-but in each case he figured upon a crowded stage and his punishment was but one in a procession of incidents. In Mrs. Dudeney's book, there are but three personages of importance; the sinner, his victim and the plain, rather ridiculous man who gives the woman his name and not only forces his world to accept her at his valuation but compels the sinner to show her respect and to do homage to her protector. The author minutely paints all three persons, and is almost equally successful with the three; the fastidious brute, the aspiring, absurd saint, and the woman whose physical beauty masters the beholder, compelling respect and sometimes envy from those of inferior charm even although they are con

scious of the superior beauty of goodness. It is to be feared that repetition has left the ordinary novel reader too cynical to find any story of the "two and another" as moving as it should be, but in Mrs. Dudeney's hands, it comes as tragic as if quite unhackneyed. The book reveals her possession of powers not disclosed or even hinted in her former novels. Small, Maynard & Co.

If one child be capable of destroying the dignity of a state dinner, the solemnity of a funeral, the stateliness of a wedding, the seriousness of any and every conceivable ceremonial occasion, what effect should half the babies of a neighborhood produce upon the life of a gentle, sensible, wise little spinster, whose days are passed in supplying the gaps left in their nurture by the ignorance, stupidity, indolence or bad temper of their parents? For answer, read "Miss Selina Lue," in which Miss Maria Thompson Davies paints the portrait of a humble household saint, who makes her village grocery a shelter for all the little children who live near. Into her life of self-sacrifice come at last a lovely girl, one of the lilies of the field, and a handsome young artist out of favor with his millionaire father for preferring art to finance, and their love makes a pretty romance of one sumGoodness so excessive as to provoke laughter is rare but possible, and one may find it and enjoy it in reading "Miss Selina Lue." Bobbs-Merrill Company.

mer.

Consumption having been well advertised by the advocates of the fresh air cure, and invested with novel terrors under the name of the "white plague," is now so interesting to possible sufferers of all ages and all degrees of health, that Mr. Edward O. Otis's "The Great White Plague," will find its circle of readers quite prepared to re