en we
had all declined, either by silence or by words, he knocked twice with
his knife on the table, and Betty came in through the open door, and
carried off the great dish to the kitchen, where an old man and a young
one, and a help-girl, were awaiting their meal.

'Shut the door, if you will,' said the minister to Betty.

'That's in honour of you,' said cousin Holman, in a tone of
satisfaction, as the door was shut. 'When we've no stranger with us,
the minister is so fond of keeping the door Open, and talking to the
men and maids, just as much as to Phillis and me.

'It brings us all together like a household just before we meet as a
household in prayer,' said he, in explanation. 'But to go back to what
we were talking about--can you tell me of any simple book on dynamics
that I could put in my pocket, and study a little at leisure times in
the day?'

'Leisure times, father?' said Phillis, with a nearer approach to a
smile than I had yet seen on her face.

'Yes; leisure times, daughter. There is many an odd minute lost in
waiting for other folk; and now that railroads are coming so near us,
it behoves us to know something about them.'

I thought of his own description of his 'prodigious big appetite' for
learning. And he had a good appetite of his own for the more material
victual before him. But I saw, or fancied I saw, that he had some rule
for himself in the matter both of food and drink.

As soon as supper was done the household assembled for prayer. It was a
long impromptu evening prayer; and it would have seemed desultory
enough had I not had a glimpse of the kind of day that preceded it, and
so been able to find a clue to the thoughts that preceded the
disjointed utterances; for he kept there kneeling down in the centre of
a circle, his eyes shut, his outstretched hands pressed palm to
palm--sometimes with a long pause of silence was anything else he
wished to 'lay before the Lord! (to use his own expression)--before he
concluded with the blessing. He prayed for the cattle and live
creatures, rather to my surprise; for my attention had begun to wander,
till it was recalled by the familiar words.

And here I must not forget to name an odd incident at the conclusion of
the prayer, and before we had risen from our knees (indeed before Betty
was well awake, for she made a practice of having a sound nap, her
weary head lying on her stalwart arms); the minister, still kneeling in
our midst, but with his eye