ed an experienced missionary, who might
constantly go among them; and while he preached the glad tidings of
salvation, might ascertain who were sick or suffering, and report to me
accordingly, that I might relieve them.

Among my first guests was Oliver Farwell. He took an eager interest in
what was going forward, and greatly assisted the missionary in his
labours. I asked Oliver what profession he purposed following, whether
he wished again to go to sea.

"I should probably have done so," he answered; "but Mr Hooker has
proposed that I should go to college, and my tastes certainly lead me to
adopt one of the learned professions. I delight in study, and should
like to choose the one by which I might the most benefit my
fellow-creatures. Had I my free choice, I should wish to become a
minister of the gospel, for I am sure to no more honourable or important
calling can man devote the energies and talents with which his Maker has
endowed him."

"I am thankful to hear that, Oliver," I answered. "You and I have been
like brothers so long, that you must allow me to treat you as a younger
brother, and bear your college expenses. I have, too, I understand, two
livings in my gift, the incumbents of which are at present old men, and
I gladly promise to present you to the first which becomes vacant,
should you by that time have been ordained."

"I will tell Mr Hooker of your kind intentions," he answered; "and
indeed, Lord Heatherly, I am truly grateful to you for them."

It sounded very odd to hear Oliver calling me Lord Heatherly. "Call me
Walter, as before, my dear Oliver," I said. "You and I must always be
Oliver and Walter to each other."

As soon as a number of decent cottages had been put up, I offered them
to the tenants at the same rents that they had paid for the ruinous
ones, which I then had pulled down, as I found they were utterly unfit
to be repaired. On their sites, after the ground had been drained, I
erected others; and in the course of two or three years, no one would
have recognised the place. Three or four wretched public-houses or
beerhouses had existed in the village. I declined renewing the leases
of the tenants of these, and got a respectable man to take a new and
decent inn, which I had built for the purpose. That part of the parish
had been noted for poachers, and the number of other disorderly
characters it contained. These either left the place or took to better
callings.

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