246 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [v.

5 a eee!

gentleman, then, knew his name, and all about the
cricket-match, and what good reason he had to be
vexed with Watkins. . Who could he be ? where could
he have come from? Harry was very certain that he
had not been among the lookers-on at the match, for
he could not have failed to observe anyone who had
appeared there in so strange adress. He could not
make it out at all, and looked hard at the old gentle-
man for several seconds before he spoke again.

‘Well,’ said the other after a while, ‘you'll know
me again, I should hope!’

‘I beg your pardon, sir, replied Harry, ‘I was
just thinking where I had seen you before.’

“You ever saw me before, interrupted the old
gentleman ; ‘so it’s no use thinking about zat. Ilive in
this wood, though, and perhaps you may see me again
some day, for I have taken rather a fancy to you.’

‘Thank you, sir, said Harry. ‘Iam very glad to
hear it ; but pray whereabouts do you live? I know
the wood pretty well; of course I do, because it is in -
my own father’s park, but I never knew that anybody
lived there. I thought the deer and rabbits and birds
and squirrels had it all to themselves.’

‘Sanderson Minor,’ gravely observed the old
gentleman, ‘there are a great many things which you do
not know yet, and a great many more which you very
likely never zz// know at all. I have told you already
that I live in this wood. Never mind how or where.
Perhaps I live in the trees and fern during the warm
summer months, and coil myself up in a hollow tree like
a dormouse all the winter. Perhaps I don’t. Anyhow,
you see me here to-day, and that must be enough for