[Illustration: THE BONFIRE. _Page 18._] Tales of the Village Children. THE BONFIRE. BY FRANCIS E. PAGET, M.A., RECTOR OF ELFORD. RUGELEY: JOHN THOMAS WALTERS. LONDON: JAMES BURNS, PORTMAN STREET. MDCCCXLIV. [Illustration] The Bonfire. A sour, cross, old man was Jasper Crabbe, living all by himself, and seeing little of his neighbours, and not at all liking their children,--so, at least, our Yateshull boys said,--and his coat was of such an old-fashioned cut, and his waistcoat and breecees were so patched and darned, and all his clothes hung so loose about his thin, withered limbs, that he looked more like a scarecrow than a man. He came to Yateshull from a distance, and everybody wondered why he took that little farm on the edge of the Common, for it was quite a ruinous tumble-down place: though, to be sure, when the neighbours saw him, they said that he and his farm were well suited to each other. By and by, when they found that he said very little about himself and lived in such a lonely way, they set their wits to work, to discover who, or what he was, and when they could find out nothing, some of our silly gossips began to say what they thought he must be, and then, in a short time, all these guesses were talked of, and believed as though they were true. Some said he was an old miser; others said he was a convict returned from Botany Bay; and all agreed that he must have been very wicked, and have a very bad conscience, to shun his neighbours in the way he did. Now this was very wrong, and very uncharitable on the part of these gossiping busy-bodies. What business had they to think the worst of, and spread false reports about a harmless old man, of whose real circumstances and history they knew nothing? It was a cruel act; and no wonder that Jasper Crabbe avoided such neighbours as much as he could. He had much better reasons for being silent about his affairs, than they had for inquiring into them. He was neither rich, nor a miser; but he was very poor, and almost heart-broken, for his only son had joined himself to bad company, and not only plundered his father of nearly all he had in the world, but had committed a crime which forced him to fly the country. And so Jasper Crabbe left his native place, and came to hide his shame and sorrow at Yateshull, where, as I have said, he was quite unknown.