We set the net three times and caught a couple of dozen of pigeons. Then we went to the house, and John told of the pigeons he had caught.
"Didn't the other boys have anything to do with it?"
"Oh, yes, they helped, but I pulled the strings."
BISHOP HANCOCK'S DRESSING-GOWN
"I've noticed that it isn't always the man that pulls the strings who does the real solid work," said Mr. Hancock.
We did not have many quarrels or lawsuits in his time. If any dispute arose, he interfered, heard both sides, and settled the case. His decision ended the matter, for the defeated person knew that every one in town would stand by Bishop Hancock's law.
I was playing in the yard with John one afternoon, when Mr. Hancock came to the window. He had on a gorgeous flowered silk dressing-gown, and instead of his big white wig, wore on his head a cap or turban of the same gorgeous silk. I hardly knew him, and stared at him.
"What's the matter, Benny? Oh, it's the dressing-gown and cap. You probably took me for some strange East India bird—a peacock, perhaps. It's nothing but some finery my son Thomas sent me to put on in the house. After wearing black all my life, it is very pleasant to move through the rooms looking like a rainbow."
"You did kind of startle me, sir. I suppose Joseph's coat must have looked a good deal like that."