ot been
tempered by honesty of soul, and which was often wrongheadedness because
not allied with subtlety.

Although not an extraordinarily taciturn man among friends slightly
richer than himself, he never wasted words upon outsiders, and to his
trapper Enoch his ideas were seldom conveyed by any other means than nods
and shakes of the head. Their long acquaintance with each other's ways,
and the nature of their labours, rendered words between them almost
superfluous as vehicles of thought, whilst the coincidence of their
horizons, and the astonishing equality of their social views, by
startling the keeper from time to time as very damaging to the theory of
master and man, strictly forbade any indulgence in words as courtesies.

Behind the keeper came Enoch (who had been assisting in the garden) at
the well-considered chronological distance of three minutes--an interval
of non-appearance on the trapper's part not arrived at without some
reflection. Four minutes had been found to express indifference to
indoor arrangements, and simultaneousness had implied too great an
anxiety about meals.

"A little earlier than usual, Fancy," the keeper said, as he sat down and
looked at the clocks. "That Ezekiel Saunders o' thine is tearing on
afore Thomas Wood again."

"I kept in the middle between them," said Fancy, also looking at the two
clocks.

"Better stick to Thomas," said her father. "There's a healthy beat in
Thomas that would lead a man to swear by en offhand. He is as true as
the town time. How is it your stap-mother isn't here?"

As Fancy was about to reply, the rattle of wheels was heard, and "Weh-
hey, Smart!" in Mr. Richard Dewy's voice rolled into the cottage from
round the corner of the house.

"Hullo! there's Dewy's cart come for thee, Fancy--Dick driving--afore
time, too. Well, ask the lad to have pot-luck with us."

Dick on entering made a point of implying by his general bearing that he
took an interest in Fancy simply as in one of the same race and country
as himself; and they all sat down. Dick could have wished her manner had
not been so entirely free from all apparent consciousness of those
accidental meetings of theirs: but he let the thought pass. Enoch sat
diagonally at a table afar off, under the corner cupboard, and drank his
cider from a long perpendicular pint cup, having tall fir-trees done in
brown on its sides. He threw occasional remarks into the general tide of
conversation, an