"We will not talk too much of that," exclaimed the fisherman, and he ledhis guest into the cottage.

There, beside the hearth, from which a scanty fire shed a dim lightthrough the cleanly-kept chamber, sat the fisherman's aged wife in acapacious chair. At the entrance of the noble guest she rose to givehim a kindly welcome, but resumed her seat of honor without offeringit to the stranger. Upon this the fisherman exclaimed with a smile: "Youmust not take it amiss of her, youthful sir, that she has not given upto you the most comfortable seat in the home; it is a custom amongpoor people, that it should belong exclusively to the aged."