And, as the habit grew upon me thereafter of dropping in to listen to the remote, restful, unworldly quaintnesses of his philosophy, fragments, dropped here and there, built up the outline of the tragedy which had left him stranded in our little backwater of quiet.

But the War between the States has changed all that, and Lichfield endures to-day only as a pleasant backwater.

Here it lay in the peaceful backwater of a native caravansary, piled high on a bullock-cart, whose placid team lay near pensively chewing the "cud of sweet and bitter fancy," and apparently quite innocent of any intention of moving for a week or two!

Then from some far-off aerie would ring the tocsin of an elfin silversmith, fast, furious, and tiny: "Ping-ping-ping-ping-ping-ping-ping-ping!" We surmised that a retired Swiss bell-ringer had secluded himself in our remote backwater of the great city to mature fresh combinations of his art.