Oh, no!"

"How, then?"

"Well, you'll want new laws, o' course, to prevent farmers an' landowners
takin' their advantage; you want laws to build new cottages; but mainly
'tes a case of hands together; can't be no other--the land's so ticklish.
If 'tesn't hands together, 'tes nothing. I 'ad a master once that was
never content so long's we wasn't content. That farm was better worked
than any in the parish."

"Yes, but the difficulty is to get masters that can see the other side; a
man doesn't care much to look at home."

The old man's dark eyes twinkled.

'No; an' when 'e does, 'tes generally to say: 'Lord, an't I right, an'
an't they wrong, just?' That's powerful customary!"

"It is," said Felix; "God bless us all!"

"Ah! You may well say that, sir; an' we want it, too. A bit more wages
wouldn't come amiss, neither. An' a bit more freedom; 'tes a man's
liberty 'e prizes as well as money."

"Did you hear about this arson case?"

The old man cast a glance this way and that before he answered in a lower
voice:

"They say 'e was put out of his cottage. I've seen men put out for
votin' Liberal; I've seen 'em put out for free-thinkin'; all sorts o'
things I seen em put out for. 'Tes that makes the bad blood. A man
wants to call 'is soul 'is own, when all's said an' done. An' 'e can't,
not in th' old country, unless 'e's got the dibs."

"And yet you never thought of emigrating?"

"Thart of it--ah! thart of it hundreds o' times; but some'ow cudden never
bring mysel' to the scratch o' not seein' th' Beacon any more. I can
just see it from 'ere, you know. But there's not so many like me, an'
gettin' fewer every day."

"Yes," murmured Felix, "that I believe."

"'Tes a 'and-made piece o' goods--the land! You has to be fond of it,
same as of your missis and yer chillen. These poor pitiful fellows
that's workin' in this factory, makin' these here Colonial
ploughs--union's all right for them--'tes all mechanical; but a man on
the land, 'e's got to put the land first, whether 'tes his own or some
one else's, or he'll never do no good; might as well go for a postman,
any day. I'm keepin' of you, though, with my tattle!"

In truth, Felix had looked at the old man, for the accursed question had
begun to worry him: Ought he or not to give the lame old fellow
something? Would it hurt his feelings? Why could he not say simply:
'Friend, I'm better off than you; help me not to feel so unfairly
favored'?