it, and calls him an old fool, and says he's more like an idiot than a nobleman."
"Oh, I've known the terms to be synonymous," put in Tom Pitts, although the phrase missed fire so far as Mother Simpson was concerned.
"Yes, old Mrs. Stover was up at the tavern this morning, threatening the innkeeper, and saying that the pub was the ruin of her husband, but the innkeeper, he says, that Ned Stover will be the ruin of the pub unless he either drinks less or pays better."
"That was a nasty one. What did she say?"
"She said she'd see he drank less, whether he paid up his back score or not, and she led old Ned away by the ear, and they do say he hasn't been let out all day."
"Well, when the lads return from the sea this afternoon we must rescue him from feminine influence. What with the suffragettes and Mrs. Stover, we poor men can't call our souls our own. The tap-room would be a dreary place of an evening lacking old Ned. We must get up a subscription and settle his score, so that Stover may start even once again."
The old woman shook her head, as if these sentiments were not to be commended, and under the cover of her disapproval Tom Pitts departed to his room, and when next the Professor saw him he had on, not only the jersey, coarse trousers, and
