Henders had no fixed occupation, being but an "orra man" about the place, and the best thing known of him is that his mother's sister was a Baptist.

He feared God, man, nor the minister; and all the learning he had was obtained from assiduous study of a grocer's window.

But for one brief day he had things his own way in the town, or, speaking strictly, on the top of it.

With a spade, a broom, and a pickaxe, which sat lightly on his broad shoulders (he was not even back-bent, and that showed him no respectable weaver), Henders delved his way to the nearest house, which formed one of a row, and addressed the inmates down the chimney.

They had already been clearing it at the other end, or his words would have been choked.