Village stories are often quaint, and stories of the countryside are sometimes--not always--interesting.

Tom Benson's wife has presented him with triplets, and there is great excitement in the village, as to the steps to be taken to secure the three guineas given by the Queen as a reward for this feat.

Old Benny Bates has announced his intention of taking a fifth wife at the age of ninety, and is indignant that it has been suggested that the parochial authorities in charge of the "Union," in which he must inevitably shortly take refuge, may interfere with his rights as a citizen.

The Reverend Lewis has been to talk seriously with him, and finds him at once irate and obdurate.
"Vicar," says old Benny, "he can't refuse to marry no man.

Law won't let him." Such refusal, he intimates, might drive him to wild and riotous living.