airs.

Although most of my father's leisure time was occupied with
conversations about the business I have mentioned, he felt that he
ought not to leave Eltham without going to pay his respects to the
relations who had been so kind to his son. So he and I ran up on an
engine along the incomplete line as far as Heathbridge, and went, by
invitation, to spend a day at the farm.

It was odd and yet pleasant to me to perceive how these two men, each
having led up to this point such totally dissimilar lives, seemed to
come together by instinct, after one quiet straight look into each
other's faces. My father was a thin, wiry man of five foot seven; the
minister was a broad-shouldered, fresh-coloured man of six foot one;
they were neither of them great talkers in general--perhaps the
minister the most so--but they spoke much to each other. My father went
into the fields with the minister; I think I see him now, with his
hands behind his back, listening intently to all explanations of
tillage, and the different processes of farming; occasionally taking up
an implement, as if unconsciously, and examining it with a critical
eye, and now and then asking a question, which I could see was
considered as pertinent by his companion. Then we returned to look at
the cattle, housed and bedded in expectation of the snow-storm hanging
black on the western horizon, and my father learned the points of a cow
with as much attention as if he meant to turn farmer. He had his little
book that he used for mechanical memoranda and measurements in his
pocket, and he took it out to write down 'straight back', small
muzzle', 'deep barrel', and I know not what else, under the head 'cow'.
He was very critical on a turnip-cutting machine, the clumsiness of
which first incited him to talk; and when we went into the house he
sate thinking and quiet for a bit, while Phillis and her mother made
the last preparations for tea, with a little unheeded apology from
cousin Holman, because we were not sitting in the best parlour, which
she thought might be chilly on so cold a night. I wanted nothing better
than the blazing, crackling fire that sent a glow over all the
house-place, and warmed the snowy flags under our feet till they seemed
to have more heat than the crimson rug right in front of the fire.
After tea, as Phillis and I were talking together very happily, I heard
an irrepressible exclamation from cousin Holman,--

'Whatever is the man about!'

And o