Peace went in front of the bar, and said to the landlord—
“I don’t want to go any further to-night. Can I have a bed here?”
“Ah! surely,” answered the host; “for as many nights as thee likes. The more the merrier.”
“Good. Then that’s settled.”
He returned to the parlour. Over the mantel-piece of this was a smoke-bleached board, on which was inscribed, in dingy yellow letters—
When first I came I some did trust,
And did my money lend;
But when I asked for the same
They soon forsook their friend.
Now my cure is no man’s sorrow—