The Minister's Charge

study to see some one who was waiting for him in the r

said, rising awkwardly, as Sewell came forwar

ll he could catch his breath in the presence of the calamity. "Oh yes! How do you do?" he said; and then planting hi

he gave Barker his hand a

which he had eked out with stove-polish, and he had put on his best pantaloons, which he had outgrown, and which, having been made very tight a season after tight pantaloons had gone out of fashion in Boston, caught on the tops of his boots and stuck there in spite of his efforts to kick them loose as he stood up, and his secret a

ressed by it, for he sat in absolute silence after resuming his chair, and made no sign of intending to ope

" he asked with a cheeriness

efly, but without the tremor in

Sewell, with the vague intention of generalising or

hatever it was. "I don't know as you got

'm very sorry to say, I forgot it altogether. Yes, I forgot it, and I certainly ask your pardon for my neglect. But I can't say that as it's turned out I altogether regret it. I can talk with you a great deal better than I could write to you in regard to your"-Sewell hesitated between the word

ve with us since you was there has had a good deal of sickness in her

I had supposed that you ever expected to exercise your faculty of versifying to any serious purpose,-for anything but your own pleasure and entertainment,-I should certa

ll that he could see, Barker remained wholly unaffected by what he had said. It nettled Sewell a little to see him apparently so besotted in his own conceit, and he added: "But I

ined himself saying to her when his trial was well over that he did not see why she complained of those stairs; that he thought they were nothing at all. But this sense of the absurdity of the situation which played upon the surf

his face of perplexity with a pene

-everything! Lemu

m in her hand which she was just about to fasten on the pillow, and

with eyes of speechless reproach; if she had done anything dramatic, or said anything tragic, no matter how unjust or exaggerated, Sewell could have borne it

that sermon on the tende

. "I had been waiting

a good whi

ting-" He stopped, and then added with a burst, "I was wai

honest about it a

she could trust him in all great matters, and perhaps she thought that for this little sin she would not add to his punishment. "And what I propose to do is to make a complete thing of it, this time. Of course," he went on convicting himself, "I see that I shall inflict twice the pain that

out of the house anywhere," said Mrs. Se

his former concealment to ask what he now meant to do about Barker, he added: "I'm going to take hi

ng the shams, and erecting herself looked at him acro

ru

rubbish? Why should you expose the poor fellow to the mortification of a perfectly n

u know

l him yourself t

e told

does h

. I can't make out wheth

Sewell could not forbear saying also, "If you'd done it at

husband, so very humbly

get rid of him the best way you can. Your time is really too preciou

to have remained as immovably in his chair as if he had been a

on upon very busy people. I must ask you to take my word for it that no publisher would bring out your poem, and it never would pay you a cent if he did." The boy remained silent as before, and Sewell had no means of knowing whether i

ke to put you o

st serve an apprenticeship if you expect to excel. But first of all you must have some natural aptitude for the business you undertake. You understand?" asked Sewell; for he had begun to doubt whether Barker understood anything

said

that he made a mental note of it for future use. "We must put a border of pinks around the potato-patch, as Emerson would say, or else the potato-patch is no better than a field of thistles." Perhaps because the logic of this figure rang a little false, Sewell hastened to add: "But there are many ways in which we can prevent the encroachment of those little duties without being tempted to neglect them, which would be still worse. I have thought a good deal about the condition of our yo

l; but now the wall opened, and a voice came out of i

s guest which he had not felt before, "why shouldn't a young man on a farm take up some scientific study, like geology, for instance, which makes

where Sewell had let it drop. But the minister was so well pleased with the fact that Barker had understood anything of what he had said, that he was content to let the notion he ha

nocked the toes of his clumsy boots. He was not large, nor naturally loutish, but the heaviness of the country was in e

had securely lodged it there, he asked sweetly: "Did you ever hear what Agassiz said

as I did," r

nches and hung there, he would follow the adventurers. It caught, and he went with the soldiers and became Duke of Milan. I like to keep the pictures of these great Originals about me," said Sewell, "because in our time, when we refer so constantly to law, we are apt to forget that God is creative as well as operative." He used these phrases involuntarily; they slipped from his tongue because he was in the habit of saying this about these pictures, and he made no effort to adapt them to Barker's comprehension, because he could not see that the idea would be of any use to him. He went on pointing out the different objects in the quiet room, and he took down several books from the shelves that covered the whole wall, and showed them to Barker, who, however, made no effort to look at them for himself, and did not say anything about them

ke polite conversation. Her two children came downstairs after her, and as she unfolded her napkin across her lap after grace she said, "This is my son, Alfred, Mr. Barker; and this is Edith." Barker took the acquain

aid he really forgot whether it was an apple year. He also said that he supposed they had dug all their turnips by this time. He had meant to say potatoes when he began, but he remembered that he had seen the farmers digging their potatoes before he came back to town, and so he substituted turnip