ot
cider," said the labourer. "Many tradespeople do not drink as good.
Bless your heart, this farm is not conducted as other farms are,--what
do you think of our style of living, by the by? have you relished your
supper?"

"All very good," responded the Schoolmaster mechanically, more and more
absorbed in the painfulness of his ideas.

"Well, then, as we live one day, so we do another. We work well, we live
well, we have a good conscience, and an equally good bed to rest upon
after the labours of the day. Our lives roll on in peace and
contentment. There are seven labourers constantly employed on the farm,
who are paid almost double wages to what others get; but then I can
venture to assert, that if we are paid double, we do as much work among
us as fourteen ordinary labourers would do. The mere husbandry servants
have one hundred and fifty crowns a year, the dairy-women and other
females engaged about the place sixty crowns, and a tenth share of the
produce of the farm is divided among us all. You may suppose we do not
idle away much time, or fail to make hay while the sun shines, for
Nature is a bountiful mother, and ever returns a hundredfold to those
who assiduously seek her favour; the more we give her, the more she
returns."

"Your master cannot get very rich if he treats you and pays you thus
liberally," said the Schoolmaster.

"Oh, our master is different to all others, and has a mode of repaying
himself peculiarly his own."

"From what you say," answered the blind man, hoping by engaging in
conversation to escape from the gloominess of his own thoughts, "your
master must be a very extraordinary person."

"Indeed he is, my good man, a most uncommon master to meet with. Now, as
chance has brought you among us, and a strange though a lucky chance for
you it has proved, lying out of the highroad as this village does, it is
so very seldom any stranger ever finds it out. Well, I was going to say,
here you are, and no fault to find with your quarters, is there? Now, in
all human probability, when you turn your back upon the place you will
never return to it, but you shall not depart without hearing from me a
description of our master and all he has done for the farm, upon
condition that you promise to repeat it again wherever you go, and to
whomsoever you may meet with. You will see, I mean, I beg pardon, you
will then be able to understand."

"I listen to you," answered the Schoolmaster; "proceed."

"And I