he met with
scoffs and hard words, but he cared little for them; he had his answer
ready, or, like his Master, when reviled he opened not his mouth. Some
one called him "a canting old hypocrite."

"Nay, friend," he replied, "you're mistaken there. I'm not a hypocrite.
A hypocrite's a man with two faces. Now, you can't say you have ever
seen me with two faces. I've seen many a drunkard with two faces--t'one
as makes the wife and childer glad, and t'other as makes their hearts
ache and jump into their mouths with fear. But you've ne'er seen that
in a gradely abstainer."

"You're a self-righteous old sinner," said another.

"I'm a sinner, I know," was Old Crow's reply; "but I'm not self-
righteous, I hope. I don't despise a poor drunkard; but I cannot
respect him. I want to pull him out of the mire, and place him where he
can respect hisself."

But generally he had ready and attentive listeners, and was the means of
winning many to the good way; for all who really knew him respected him
for his consistency. And Jacob was happy with him, and yet to him there
was one thing still wanting. He had never in all his wanderings been
able to discover the least trace of those whom he was seeking, and the
desire to learn something certain about them increased day by day. At
last, one fine July evening, he said to his old companion,--

"Ould Crow, I can't be content as I am. I must try my luck further off.
If you've nothing to say against it, I'll just take the cart with me
for a month or six weeks, and see if the Lord'll give me success. I'll
go right away into Shropshire, and try round there; and through
Staffordshire and Derbyshire."

"Well, my son," was the reply, "you'll just do what you know to be
right. I won't say a word against it."

"And if," added Jacob, "I can't find them as I'm seeking, nor hear
anything gradely about 'em, I'll just come back and settle me down
content."

"The Lord go with you," said the old man; "you'll not forget me nor poor
Deborah."

"I cannot," replied Jacob; "my heart'll be with you all the time."

"And how shall we know how you're coming on?"

"Oh, I'll send you a letter if I ain't back by the six week end."

So the next morning Jacob started on his distant journey. Many were the
roads he traversed, and many the towns and villages he visited, as he
slowly made his way through Cheshire into Shropshire; and many were the
disappointments he met with, when he thought he had