"Why, I think you were perhaps a trifle hasty," said I.
"Oh, ye do, do ye?"
"Yes," I nodded.
"An' for why?"
"Well, you will probably remember that the hat had a band round
it--"
"Ay, all wore away it were too--"
"And that in the band was a buckle--"
"Ay, all scratched an' rusty it were--well?"
"Well, that tarnished buckle was of silver--"
"Silver!" gasped the man, his jaw falling.
"And easily worth five shillings, perhaps more, so that I think
you were, upon the whole, rather hasty." Saying which, I
finished my ale and, taking up my staff, stepped out into the
sunshine.