The flints were dry, and preserved the slumbering wayfarer from damp.

He had no doubt proved this when the ale was too strong.

At the house, as I passed through the courtyard, I found him just on the point of starting for Overboro' with a wallet, to bring back some goods from the shops.

The wallet is almost unknown even in farmsteads now: it is a kind of long bag closed at each end, but with a slit in the centre for the insertion of the things to be conveyed.

When filled it is slung over the shoulder, one end in front and the other behind, so as to balance.
Without knowing the shape of a wallet the story of Jack the Giant-Killer stowing away such enormous quantities of pudding is scarcely to be understood: children nowadays never see such a thing.
Many nursery tales contain allusions of this kind, the meaning of which must be obscure to the rising generation.
Within doors I found a great discussion going forward between Hilary and a farmer who had called, as to the exact relationship of a man who had just quitted his tenancy and another who died nearly forty years before.