A Delaware legend--A story of the old time--The Christmas play--A cruel accusation--The flight in the darkness along the river shore--The trial and the condemnation--St. Pillory's day seventy years ago--Flogging a woman--The deliverance 211 CHAPTER XV. A very disagreeable predicament--Wild exultation of Parker--He makes an important announcement--An interview with the old man--The embarrassment of Mr. Sparks, and how he overcame it--A story of Bishop Potts--The miseries of too much consolidation--How Potts suffered, and what his end was 237 CHAPTER XVI. Old Fort Kasimir--Two centuries ago--The goblins of the lane--An outrage upon Pitman's cow--The judge discusses the subject of bitters--How Cooley came home--Turning off the gas--A frightful accident in the _Argus_ office--The terrible fate of Archibald Watson--How Mr. Bergner taught Sunday-school 255 CHAPTER XVII. A dismal sort of day--A few able remarks about umbrellas--The umbrella in a humorous aspect--The calamity that befell Colonel Coombs--An ambitious but miserable monarch--The influence of umbrellas on the weather--An improved weather system--A little nonsense--Judge Pitman's views of weather of various kinds 278 CHAPTER XVIII. Trouble for the hero and heroine--A broken engagement and a forlorn damsel--Bob Parker's suffering--A formidable encounter--The peculiar conduct of a dumb animal--Cooley's boy and his home discipline--A story of an echo 293 CHAPTER XIX. A certificate concerning Pitman's hair--Unendurable persecution--A warning to men with bald-headed friends--An explanation--The slanderer discovered--Benjamin P. Gunn--A model life-insurance agent 306 CHAPTER XX. A certain remarkable book--A few suggestions respecting Boston--Delusions of childhood--Bullying General Gage--Judge Pitman and the catechism--An extraordinary blunder--The facts in the case of Hillegass--A false alarm 324 CHAPTER XXI. Settling the business--Vindication of Mr. Bob Parker--A complete reconciliation--The great Cooley inquest--The uncertainty in regard to Thomas Cooley--A phenomenal coroner--The solution of the mystery 334 CHAPTER XXII. An arrival--A present from a Congressman--Meditation upon his purpose--The patent-office report of the future--A plan for revolutionizing public documents and opening a new department in literature--Our trip to Salem--A tragical event--The last of Lieutenant Smiley 350 CHAPTER XXIII.