Dariel

as muscle into the fight they are waging! And this pleasure should be made the most of, because it is growing very rare. I have heard my grandfather say, that when he was a boy, one man could do, ay

, and even capable of some Latin, was the wild cram and pressure of pugnacious ed

rt Slemmick. To this man nothing came amiss, if only there was enough of it. He was not particularly strong, nor large of frame, nor well put together; but rather of a clumsy build and gait, walking always with a stoop, as if he were driving a full wheel-barrow, and swinging both arms at full speed with his legs. But set

eems that there are two kinds of "busters." The white one, who only leaves work for a spree of a day or two, meaning to jollify, and to come back in a chastened vein, after treating all his friends, and then going upon trust; and the black, who is of a stronger mind. This man knows better than to waste his cash upon clinking glasses with a bubble at the top. He is a pattern for we

cabbages, upon a Sunday morning. And the next-door lady shakes her head over the four-feet palings, with her husband upstairs roaring out for a fresher

ewters, and setting them in the sun for an airing; perhaps it was a flower that set him off, a scarlet Geranium, who can tell? Under some wild impulse he bolts and makes away; he is in the next parish, before his poor wife has given up keeping the tea-pot warm; and by the time she has knocked at the tool-house door, in the forlorn h

n never came on any premises. When I took him back after his escapade, I told him very plainly that it would not be done again; and he promised to stick to his work, and did so. But not a word to me, or anybody else, as to why he went away, or whither, o

on with the fork below; and it must according to the times have been the very day after Jack

at him very seriously; reminding him thus, without harshness, of

rstand you. We were finishing a little rick of very choice short staple, with a lot of clover in it, and Old Joe in the

all round rick is the hardest of all for scientific building, and then he came bac

a tube of his brown, bristly hand, "to hear all about the

his, I answered him very firmly. "Get on

hath his turn to come, same as every young man the Lord hath made with a pair of eyes

whose outline was visible from where we stood. And dig

eyes upon the very place! Why, ne'er a man in England hath ever

st have been dreaming. Who knows

en, and the subject was known to be hateful to him. But this was the sure way to let his tongu

leaves the same as a church-tower. You can't deny of they, when you sees them, can 'e? And the boot

e ready to play "I spy" with mine. "I insist upon knowing where you have been, and what you have done, and what peop

tongue was as brisk as his arms and legs, which had rare gifts of locomotion. But I must fill in

e always far in advance of him at such moments, and perhaps his main object was to overtake them. This he could not explain, and had never thought about it, but at any rate that door should not stop him. It was locked, or bolted

em in an instant, and stood over him, grinding enormous jaws. Dazed as he was, cold terror kept his restless members quiet, and perhaps he felt

topped his tramp for ever. But they saw that he was a respectable man, a sound home-liver in his proper state of mind; and although they would not hear of his getting up, they deliberated what they ought to d

irst thoughts should have been. But while he was thus truly penitent I hope, a clear sound as of a silver whistle came to his ears, and the dogs stood u

ell me, Master Jarge, for never will I hear a word agin it. Straight from heaven, with the big hound a'jumping at her side, a

put any question of this kind, but Slemmick was in such a

as no words in any Dixunary, and if there was, I couldn't lay t

friend. Surely you must have seen some on

f the horgan. Not that she were singing, only to the ear, my meaning is; and never mind the words no more than folk does in a hant

or I know not how long. Did you spend the w

Jarge, I'll take 'e there; for two skips of a flea I would. Won't 'e?

own. But that, as he assured me, was of no account in his estimate of her qualities. "You ask Farmer Ticknor, sir, if you think I be a'lying. Farmer Ticknor hath seed her, more at his comfort than ever I did; and Ticknor come hotter than I do. 'Hold your blessed jaw'-he say, when I goeth to ask about her, knowing as he were neighbourly-'What call for y

of great authority about the weather and the crops, and had held land under us as long as he could afford to do so. He was rather crusty now, as a man is apt to be when he lives upon a crust for the benefit of foreigners, and receives his exchange in coloured tallow. It was two or three years since I had seen him now; for "Ticknor's Mew," as he called his place, was out of the general course

of it. Not much odds to this land of England now, what weather God Almighty please to send. 'And when they shamed the Lord out of caring to mind the harvest, the Government goeth for to hirritate Him more, with a Hoffice to tell us what sort of hat to put upon our heads, when us can't pay for n

great blackboard were pasted in parallel columns the "Daily forecasts" and Farmer Ticknor's predictions entered at noon of

sed forecasts are in type. Now the crosses on the manuscript are not quite five per cent; while those upon the printing exceed seventy-five. If there were any impartiality in politics, don't you think, Mr. Cra

e after my time-and give 'un twelve hours longer with his arrows and his dots; and then I'll name the day agin him, for the best joint in his yard. But bless your heart and mine too, Master Jarge, what odds for the weather

t, and contrived to lead him as far as the margin of the wood, where the clouds by which he made his divinations could be contemplated more compl

ound to follow out, was the vision (seen by others as well as myself) of a foreign young maiden-if it must be so-unequalled by any of English birth. The prevalence of loose commercial ideas, and the prostitution of Britannia (so highly respected while she lock

e, where there seems to be such a lot of black stuff? What is it? Ivy it looks like. And old walls behind it, or something very old. I think

the better of him. "You be gone into the retail line," he said. "To think of the

im that most of our milk went to London, under contract with a great

ot much profit out of that, of course. They takes in a gallon-can ev

said. "No English people care about goat's mi

all I hear. Toorks I call them, and I put it on the bill, 'Toork Esquire, debtor

And they must have some other name besides Turks. E

s that they bain't English folk. If you want to know more about them, Mr. Cranleigh, the one as can teach you is my dog Grab. Grab feeleth great curiosity about them, because of the b

ul he may be, and consistent, and straightforward, and devoted to his duty. But why should he hold it a part of his duty to kill every gentle and accomplished dog he meets, unless the other dips his tail, the canine ensign, to him? And of all the bull-dogs I have ever seen, this Grab was the least urbane and polished. A white beast with three gri

air; "but they never lets them free of the big wall hardly, to let Grab see what they be made of. But come back to h

the valley there, that I should like to know more about. I'll follow you back to the house in a few minutes. But how long d

don't have no fishmonger, butcher, grocer, nor any boy to call out 'papper' at the door. My boy Charlie is uncommon proud, because he have got into their 'Good-morning.' They says it like Christians, so far as he can judge, and

and," for being out at elbows. After thinking for a minute of all that I had heard, which was not very much to dwell upon, I twirled my riding-cro

n it afar with Tom Erricker, something prevented me from letting him come near it. Tom was an excellent fellow in his way; but of reverence and lofty regard for women no d

when I see things that look as if they called upon us to be grateful for the pleasure they contribute to our minds. Certain people can do this, as some can make fine after-dinner speeches, while others are more fitted to rejoice inside. And i

ength of watercourse, but gave no other token of its purpose. This was what I cared most about; for stupid and unreasonable as it must appear, a sharp spur had been clapped to my imagination by the vague talk of Slemmick and Ticknor. And not only that, but to some extent, the zeal and the ardour of Jackson Stoneman, and his downright policy, had set me thinking that poor as I was, while he w

e thing moving throughout all my circuit, and that was but little to comfort me. Just as I was slipping by the upper door (which Slemmick had burst open), and taking long strides-for if some one had opened it and asked what I wanted there, how could I, as a gentleman, tell the whole truth?-suddenly there appeared within a square embrasure

t leisure; and if I had moved he would have bounded down upon me. Luckily I had the sense to stand stock-still, and afford him every facility for study of my character. At the same time I looked at him, not combatively, but as if I felt similar interest in him, which I had excellent reason f

scarcely moved so much perhaps by the influence of my goodness, as by the fragrance of my sister's spaniel, Lady Silky, who had nestled in my hairy jacket, while I was casting up accounts t

of the rustics round about us, all who were not of British birth were either Turks or Frenchmen. To my mind these were neither; and the possession of those noble dogs-a breed entirely new to me-showed that they were not dwelling here to conceal their identity, or to retrench from poverty. For there were at least two dogs, perhaps more, worth a hundred guineas each to any London dealer at the lowest computation, and not by

tured" maiden,-"A little bird has told me, though I would not listen to him, that a young lady almost as pretty as Miss Ticknor lives in a valley

stery! Culture does put such a cruel curb upon curiosity.

orld, Miss Ticknor; though some may t