cried the traveller , laughing ; `` and , if the truth must be told , my companion and myself need some amends . Those children -LRB- the little rascals ! -RRB- have bespattered us finely with their mud-ball ; and one of the curs has torn my cloak , which was ragged enough already . But I took him across the muzzle with my staff ; and I think you may have heard him yelp , even thus far off . '' Philemon was glad to see him in such good spirits ; nor , indeed , would you have fancied , by the traveller 's look and manner , that he was weary with a long day 's journey , besides being disheartened by rough treatment at the end of it . He was dressed in rather an odd way , with a sort of cap on his head , the brim of which stuck out over both ears . Though it was a summer evening , he wore a cloak , which he kept wrapt closely about him , perhaps because his under garments were shabby . Philemen perceived , too , that he had on a singular pair of shoes ; but , as it was now growing dusk , and as the old man 's eyesight was none the sharpest , he could not precisely tell in what the strangeness consisted . One thing , certainly , seemed queer . The traveller was so wonderfully light and active , that it appeared as if his feet sometimes rose from the ground of their own accord , or could only be kept down by an effort . `` I used to be light-footed , in my youth , '' said Philemen to the traveller . `` But I always found my feet grow heavier towards nightfall . '' `` There is nothing like a good staff to help one along , '' answered the stranger ; `` and I happen to have an excellent one , as you see . '' This staff , in fact , was the oddest-looking staff that Philemon had ever beheld . It was made of olive-wood , and had something like a little pair of wings near the top . Two snakes , carved in the wood , were represented as twining themselves about the staff , and were so very skilfully executed that old Philemon -LRB- whose eyes , you know , were getting rather dim -RRB- almost thought them alive , and that he could see them wriggling and twisting . `` A curious piece of work , sure enough ! '' said he . `` A staff with wings ! It would be an excellent kind of stick for a little boy to ride astride of ! ''
By this time , XXXXX and his two guests had reached the cottage-door .
Philemen Philemon amends curs day evening executed mud-ball olive-wood wrapt