LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

[Birthplace of Shakespeare] Frontispiece
["Will clambered up on the settle to think it all over"]
["Dad bends to tweak the ear of Will"]
["'Ay, but those are brave words, Hammie,' says Gammer"]
["'Save us! What's that!' cried Gammer"]
["'Ay, boy, you shall see the players'"]
["'An' I shall be a player, too,' ... says Willy Shakespeare"]
["His mother stepping now and then to the lattice window"]
["Bound for Grandfather's at Snitterfield they were"]
["For instance he knew one Bardolph ... the tapster at the tavern"]
["Hidden away among the willows ... he spends the morning"]
["The two have run away ... to wander about the river banks"]
["He ... trudged up the path and peered in at the open door"]
["'When the masterful hand, groping, seizes mine, I shall know it'"]
["This strange thing called Death ..."]
["Dad ... sat staring in moody silence"]
["Tall, sturdy Will Shakespeare could buy up cattle ... as well as the butcher's son"]

A WARWICKSHIRE LAD

I

Little Will Shakespeare was going homeward through the dusk from Gammer Gurton's fireside. He had no timorous fears, not he. He would walk proudly and deliberately as becomes a man. Men are not afraid. Yet Gammer had told of strange happenings at her home. A magpie had flown screaming over the roof, the butter would not come in the churn, an' a strange cat had slipped out afore the maid at daybreak—a cat without a tail, Gammer said—

Little Will quickened his pace.