taken in, his answer was dictated simply by a donnish unwillingness to
allow any one to be better informed on any subject than he was himself.

My father, when I suggested this to him, would not hear of it. "Oh no,"
he said; "the man knew well enough that I was lying." However this may
be, the Professor's manner changed.

"You are right," he said, "I thought they were landrail bones, but was
not sure till I had one in my hand. I see, too, that the plucked birds
are landrails, but there is little light, and I have not often seen them
without their feathers."

"I think," said my father to me, "that Hanky knew what his friend meant,
for he said, 'Panky, I am very hungry.'"

"Oh, Hanky, Hanky," said the other, modulating his harsh voice till it
was quite pleasant. "Don't corrupt the poor man."

"Panky, drop that; we are not at Bridgeford now; I am very hungry, and I
believe half those birds are not quails but landrails."

My father saw he was safe. He said, "Perhaps some of them might prove to
be so, sir, under certain circumstances. I am a poor man, sir."

"Come, come," said Hanky; and he slipped a sum equal to about
half-a-crown into my father's hand.

"I do not know what you mean, sir," said my father, "and if I did, half-a-
crown would not be nearly enough."