Excerpt from St. Nicholas, Vol. 24: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks; Part I., November, 1896, to April, 1897 There was an unwonted buzzing in the east end of Stratford on that next to the last day Of April, 1596. It was as if some one had thrust a stick into a hive of bees and they had come whirling out to see. The low stone guard-wall Of Old Clopton bridge, built a hundred years before by rich Sir Hugh, sometime Mayor Of London, was lined with straddling boys like strawberries upon a Spear of grass, and along the low causeway from the west across the lowland to the town, brown faced, barefoot youngsters sat beside the road way with their chubby legs a-dangle down the mossy stones, staring away into the south across the grassy levels Of the valley Of the Stour. Punts were poling slowly up the Avon to the bridge; and at the outlets Of the town where the streets came down to the waterside among the weeds, little knots Of men and serving maids stood looking into the south and listening. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.