" exclaimed the tinker.

"It was that old man with a gray beard who never spoke to anybody an' used to visit the tinker.

" In Hillsborough, where all spoke of him as an odd man of great learning, there were none, saving Trove and two or three others, that knew the tinker well, for he took no part in the roaring gossip of shop and store.

And with that he turned on his heel and left the astonished tinker.

He ranks next to the stalwart knight of the eraser, because he has the courage to arrest the endless tinkering of design in order to get something done.

One had nicknamed the other "the melancholy tinker.

Presently he passed on and Mr. Lukisch resumed his tinkering with the clock's insides.

"There stands a tinker," quoth Robin, "that would fain take me to Nottingham, there to hang upon the gallows tree.

"Did you tell the tinker about your boss the night we were all at Robin's Inn last summer?

I was feeling energetic, and always liking a little tinkering on my own, I said I would make it myself.

He found a lamp in the first room he entered, returned to the piazza, sat down on the edge of it, and began his tinkering.