.

GAMMER GUETON'S NEEDLE.
Slowly and lost in gloomy thought, John Heywood walked toward his lodgings.

These lodgings were situated in the second or inner court of the vast palace of Whitehall, in that wing of the castle which contained the apartments of all the higher officers of the royal household, and so those of the court-jesters also; for the king's fool was at that period a very important and respectable personage, who occupied a rank equal to that of a gentleman of the royal bed-chamber.
John Heywood had just crossed this second courtyard, when all at once loud, wrangling voices, and the clear, peculiar ring of a box on the ear, startled him out of his meditations.

He stopped and listened.

His face, before so serious, had now reassumed its usual merry and shrewd expression; his large eyes again glittered with humor and mischief.
"There again verily is my sweet, charming housekeeper, Gammer Gurton," said John Heywood, laughing; "and she no doubt is quarrelling again with my excellent servant, that poor, long-legged, blear-eyed Hodge.