at they thought, it is useless to give voice to
their opinions, which they did quite sufficiently. Zebedee Tugwell felt
sure that he had done the right thing, and therefore admired himself,
but would have enjoyed himself more if he had done the wrong one.

"What fault of mine, or of his, poor lamb?" Mrs. Tugwell asked, with
some irony. She knew that her husband could never dare to go to see the
King without her--for no married man in the place would venture to look
at him twice if he did such a thing--and she had made up her own mind
to go from the first; but still, he should humble himself before she did
it. "Was it I as colted him? Or was it him as gashed himself, like the
prophets of Baal, when 'a was gone hunting?"

"No; but you cockered him up, the same as was done to they, by the
wicked king, and his wife--the worst woman as ever lived. If they hadn't
gashed theirselves, I reckon, the true man of God would 'a done it for
them, the same as he cut their throats into the brook Kishon. Solomon
was the wisest man as ever lived, and Job the most patient--the same as
I be--and Elijah, the Tishbite, the most justest."

"You better finish up with all the Psalms of David, and the Holy
Children, and the Burial Service. No more call for Parson Twemlow, or
the new Churchwarden come in place of Cheeseman, because 'a tried to
hang his self. Zebedee Tugwell in the pulpit! Zebedee, come round
with the plate! Parson Tugwell, if you please, a-reading out the ten
commandments! But 'un ought to leave out the sixth, for fear of spoiling
's own dinner afterwards; and the seventh, if 'a hopes to go to see King
George the third, with another man's woman to his elbow!"

"When you begins to go on like that," Captain Tugwell replied, with some
dignity, "the only thing as a quiet man can do is to go out of houze,
and have a half-pint of small ale." He put his hat on his head and went
to do it.

Notwithstanding all this and much more, when the great day came for
the Grand Review, very few people saw more of the King, or entered more
kindly into all his thoughts--or rather the thoughts that they made him
think--than Zebedee Tugwell and his wife Kezia. The place being so near
home, and the smoke of their own chimneys and masts of their smack as
good as in sight--if you knew where to look--it was natural for them to
regard the King as a stranger requiring to be taught about their place.
This sense of proprietary right is strong in dogs and bi