e and silly enough were some of the shifts that her
father's open-handedness put her to in these bad days of the bitter
need of the island's poor people.

It was the winter season, when things were at their worst, and on
Christmas Eve Greeba had a goose killed for their Christmas dinner.
The bird was hung in one of the out-houses, to drain and cool before
being plucked, and while it was there Greeba went out, leaving her
father at home. Then came three of the many who had never yet been
turned empty from the Governor's door. Adam blustered at all of them,
but he emptied his pockets to one, gave the goose to another, and
smuggled something out of the pantry for the third.

The goose was missed by the maid whose work it was to pluck it, and
its disappearance was made known to Greeba on her return. Guessing at
the way it had gone, she went into the room where her father sat
placidly smoking, and trying to look wondrous, serene and innocent.

"What do you think, father?" she said; "someone has stolen the
goose."

"I'm afraid, my dear," he answered, meekly, "I gave it away to poor
Kinrade, the parish clerk. Would you believe it, he and his good old
wife hadn't a bit or a sup for their Christmas dinner?"

"Well," said Greeba, "you'll have to be content with bread and cheese
for your own, for we have nothing else in the house now."

"I'm afraid, my dear," he stammered, "I gave away the cheese too.
Poor daft Gelling, who lives on the mountains, had nothing to eat but
a loaf of bread, poor fellow."

Now the rapid impoverishment of the Governor was forcing Greeba into
the arms of Jason, though they had yet no idea that this was so; and
when the crisis came that loosened the ties which held Greeba to her
father, it came as a surprise to all three of them.

The one man in the island who had thus far shown a complete
indifference to the sufferings of the poor in their hour of
tribulation was the Bishop of Sodor and Man. This person was a
fashionable ecclesiastic--not a Manxman--a Murray, and a near kinsman
of the Lord of the Island, who had kept the See four years vacant
that the sole place of profit in the island might thereby be retained
for his own family. Many years the Bishop had drawn his stipend,
tithe and glebe rents, which were very large in proportion to the
diocese, and almost equal in amount to the emoluments of the whole
body of the native clergy. He held small commerce with his people,
and the bad seasons tro