village, but John Thorndyke got him to go down with him to call upon
Mr. Greg, and afterwards to walk through it with him. At first he went
timidly and shrinkingly, but the kindly greetings of the women he met,
and the children stopping to pull a forelock or bob a courtesy as of
old, gradually cheered him up, and he soon got accustomed to the change,
and would of an afternoon go down to the village and chat with the
women, after he had ascertained that his successor had no objection
whatever, and was, indeed, pleased that he still took an interest in his
former parishioners. Mark was at first disappointed at the arrangement,
for he had looked forward to going to a public school. His father,
however, had no great trouble in reconciling him to it.

"Of course, Mark," he said, "there are advantages in a public school.
I was never at one myself, but I believe that, though the discipline is
pretty strict, there is a great deal of fun and sport, and you may make
desirable acquaintances. Upon the other hand, there are drawbacks. In
the first place, the majority of the boys are sons of richer men than
I am. I don't know that that would matter much, but it would give you
expensive habits, and perhaps make you fonder of London life than I
should care about. In the next place, you see, you would be at school
when the shooting begins, and you are looking forward to carrying a gun
next year. The same with hunting. You know I promised that this year you
should go to the meets on your pony, and see as much of them as you can,
and of course when you were at school you would only be able to indulge
in these matters during your holidays; and if a hard frost set in, as
is the case three times out of four, just as you came home, you would be
out of it altogether.

"I must say I should like you to have a real love of field sports and to
be a good shot and a good rider. A man, however wide his acres may be,
is thought but little of in the country if he is not a good sportsman;
and, moreover, there is nothing better for developing health and muscles
than riding, and tramping over the fields with a gun on your shoulder;
and, lastly, you must not forget, Mark, that one of my objects in making
this arrangement is to keep Mr. Bastow with us. I am sure that unless
he thought that he was making himself useful he would not be content
to remain here; and at his age, you know, it would be hard for him to
obtain clerical employment."

"All right, fat