Oldroyd drummed the sides of his little charger as he rode on along a very narrow pathway through the wood that he had to cross to get to old Mrs Wattley's, and he looked anything but a picturesque object as a cavalier, for either he was too big or his steed too small--the latter, a little shaggy, rarely-groomed creature, being more accustomed to drag loads of corn for his master from the town than to act as hack for the principal medical man of the neighbourhood. Peter pricked up his ears as soon as they were through the wood, and turned off, unguided, to the right, where, on as lonely and deserted a spot as could have been selected, being built in fact upon a spare corner between the road and the next property, stood the cottage inhabited by old Mrs Wattley. Report said that Timothy Wattley had built himself a shed there many years before, this being a sort of common land. The shed had been contrived by the insertion of four fir-poles at the angles, some others being tied across to form a roof, while sides and top were of freshly cut furze. Time went on, and the windy side of Tim Wattley's shed was coated with mud. More time went by, and a thatched roof appeared. Then came a real brick chimney and a proper door, and so on, and so on, till, in the course of years, the shed grew into quite a respectable cottage, with separate rooms--two--and a real iron fireplace. Then report said that instead of walking over to church on Sunday mornings, Timothy Wattley used to send his wife, while he idled round his little scrap of a garden, pushing the hedge out a bit more and a bit more with his heavy boot, and all so gradually that the process was unnoticed, while when the old man died after forty years' possession of the place, the patch upon which he had first set up his fir-pole and furze shed had grown into a freehold of an acre and a half, properly hedged in, and of which the widow could not be dispossessed. It was at the rough little gate of the cottage that Peter the pony stopped short, and began nibbling the most tender shoots of the hedge that he could find. Oldroyd dismounted and secured the reins before going up to the door; tapping, and then going straight in, lowering his head to avoid a blow from the cross-piece that might have been fixed by a dwarf. "Ah, doctor," came from the large bed which nearly filled up the little room, and on which lay the comfortable-looking, puckered, apple-faced old woman, "you've been a long time coming. If I had been some rich folks up at Brackley or somers-else, you'd have been here long enough ago." "My dear Mrs Wattley," cried Oldroyd; "nothing of the kind. I took the pony and rode over as soon as I had your message, and I could not have done more if you had been the queen." "Then it's that dratted boy went and forgot it yesterday morning. Oh, if ever I grow well and strong again, I'll let him know!" "Did you send a message yesterday morning, then?"