ll have no new churches here, and a man who might go against
me. They all want to pick their own religious views, instead of
reflecting who supports them! It never used to be so; and such things
shall never occur on my manor. A good hotel, attendance included, and a
sound and moderate table d'hote; but no church, with a popish bag sent
round, and money to pay, 'without anything to eat.'"

"My dear! my dear!" cried Mrs. Hockin, "I never like you to talk like
that. You quite forget who my father was, and your own second son such a
very sound priest!"

"A priest! Don't let him come here," cried the Major, "or I'll let him
know what tonsure is, and read him the order of Melchisedec. A priest!
After going round the world three times, to come home and be hailed as
the father of a priest! Don't let him come near me, or I'll sacrifice
him."

"Now, Major, you are very proud of him," his good wife answered, as
he shook his stick. "How could he help taking orders when he was under
orders to do so? And his views are sound to the last degree, most
strictly correct and practical--at least except as to celibacy."

"He holds that his own mother ought never to have been born! Miss Wood,
do you call that practical?"

"I have no acquaintance with such things," I replied; "we had none of
them in California. But is it practical, Major Hockin--of course you
know best in your engineering--I mean, would it not require something
like a tunnel for the river and the railway to run on the same ground?"

"Why, bless me! That seems to have escaped my notice. You have not been
with old Uncle Sam for nothing. We shall have to appoint you our chief
engineer."

CHAPTER XXI

LISTLESS

It seemed an unfortunate thing for me, and unfavorable to my purpose,
that my host, and even my hostess too, should be so engrossed with their
new estate, its beauties and capabilities. Mrs. Hockin devoted herself
at once to fowls and pigs and the like extravagant economies, having
bought, at some ill-starred moment, a book which proved that hens ought
to lay eggs in a manner to support themselves, their families, and the
family they belonged to, at the price of one penny a dozen. Eggs being
two shillings a dozen in Bruntsea, here was a margin for profit--no less
than two thousand per cent, to be made, allowing for all accidents.
The lady also found another book, divulging for a shilling the author's
purely invaluable secret--how to work an acre of ground,