s given out, and they read verse and verse about
until they reached the end of the lesson. Then they knelt round the
table and listened to the tremulous tones of their father's prayer.
When he had finished they all repeated after him the Lord's Prayer and
then rose. At one of these reunited gatherings one of the brothers had
been restless, and persisted in nudging his sisters and winking at them
when his parent had reached his most impressive periods and was
oblivious of everything but his communion with God. The scamp was taken
aside by the younger sister, who was a strong-minded little damsel with
fixed ideas, and she sharply reproved him for his irreverence; and the
elder sister, who had a keen sense of humour as well as fixed opinions,
was so thankful that the boys had been brought safely back to them, she
commenced to make the most comical excuses for their erring brother's
buoyant indiscretion. The young man's contrition was signified by his
taking hold of his sisters, waltzing them round the room, and then
proceeding to stand on his head and dangling his legs in the air. This
threw them into fits of laughter, and though it was against the rules
of the home, the joyous chatter was resumed and continued until long
past the regulated time for going to bed. When I hear people ridiculing
religion and its forms, I think of those simple days of village
methodism with a throbbing of the heart.

There were coteries in this small out-of-the-way place as there are in
large towns and cities, and perhaps the exclusiveness was even more
pronounced there than in the larger centres. The fisher people were a
class by themselves, with whom the squire's employes thought it beneath
their dignity to be on regular visiting terms. They married and
intermarried amongst themselves, while Mr Humbert's servants were a
mixed class. Some had intellectual ambitions and rare musical talents,
and others had not; and it was amongst the former that the Burnsides
found something in common. Their home gathered up all the more cultured
part of the population. But apart from that, every young and old person
in the village was known to the others. The well was situated a good
distance from the cottages, and the girls of the village generally had
to carry the water to their homes either because there were no sons or
because they were employed elsewhere; but if any of them were about,
the lassie with the burden was always offered help, and rarely refused