parting saint flying across Bunhill Fields
burying-ground in his wig and gown and bands, supported on either side
by a stalwart angel.

As Elisabeth had surmised, the entertainment on this occasion was
pork-pie; and Mrs. Hankey, a near neighbour, had also been bidden to
share the feast. So the tea-party was a party of four, the respective
husbands of the two ladies not yet having returned from their duties at
the Osierfield.

"I hope that you'll all make yourselves welcome," said the hostess,
after they had sat down at the festive board. "Master Christopher, my
dear, will you kindly ask a blessing?"

Christopher asked a blessing as kindly as he could, and Mrs. Bateson
continued:

"Well, to be sure, it is a pleasure to see you looking so tall and
strong, Master Christopher, after all your schooling. I'm not in favour
of much schooling myself, as I think it hinders young folks from
growing, and puts them off their vittles; but you give the contradiction
to that notion--doesn't he, Mrs. Hankey?"

Mrs. Hankey shook her head. It was her rule in life never to look on the
bright side of things; she considered that to do so was what she called
"tempting Providence." Her theory appeared to be that as long as
Providence saw you were miserable, that Power was comfortable about you
and let you alone; but if Providence discovered you could bear more
sorrow than you were then bearing, you were at once supplied with that
little more. Naturally, therefore, her object was to convince Providence
that her cup of misery was full. But Mrs. Hankey had her innocent
enjoyments, in spite of the sternness of her creed. If she took light
things seriously, she took serious things lightly; so she was not
without her compensations. For instance, a Sunday evening's discourse on
future punishment and the like, with illustrations, was an unfailing
source of pure and healthful pleasure to her; while a funeral
sermon--when the chapel was hung with black, and the bereaved family
sat in state in their new mourning, and the choir sang Vital Spark as an
anthem--filled her soul with joy. So when Mrs. Bateson commented with
such unseemly cheerfulness upon Christopher's encouraging appearance, it
was but consistent of Mrs. Hankey to shake her head.

"You can never tell," she replied--"never; often them that looks the
best feels the worst; and many's the time I've seen folks look the very
picture of health just before they was took with a mortal illness."