The village in which the Hayeses dwelt was but a very few miles out of the road from Bristol; whither, on the benevolent mission above, hinted at, our party of worthies were bound: and coming, towards the afternoon, in sight of the house of that very Justice Ballance who had been so nearly the ruin of Ensign Macshane, that officer narrated, for the hundredth time, and with much glee, the circumstances which had then befallen him, and the manner in which Mrs.Hayes the elder had come forward to his rescue.
"Suppose we go and see the old girl ?" suggested Mr.Wood.

"No harm can come to us now." And his comrade always assenting, they wound their way towards the village, and reached it as the evening came on.

In the public-house where they rested, Wood made inquiries concerning the Hayes family; was informed of the death of the old couple, of the establishment of John Hayes and his wife in their place, and of the kind of life that these latter led together.

When all these points had been imparted to him, he ruminated much: an expression of sublime triumph and exultation at length lighted up his features.

"I think, Tim," said he at last, "that we can make more than five pieces of that boy." "Oh, in coorse!" said Timothy Macshane, Esquire; who always agreed with his "Meejor." "In coorse, you fool! and how?
I'll tell you how.