ed up his
mouth.

"Ah!" said Mrs. Prime; "it is well for the sheep that there are still
left a few who do not run from their work, even in the heat of the
noonday sun."

Mr. Prong closed his eyes and bowed his head, and then reassumed that
peculiarly disagreeable look about his mouth by which he thought
to assert his dignity, intending thereby to signify that he would
willingly reject the compliment as unnecessary, were he not forced to
accept it as being true. He knew himself to be a shepherd who did not
fear the noonday heat; but he was wrong in this,--that he suspected
all other shepherds of stinting their work. It appeared to him that
no sheep could nibble his grass in wholesome content, unless some
shepherd were at work at him constantly with his crook. It was for
the shepherd, as he thought, to know what tufts of grass were rank,
and in what spots the herbage might be bitten down to the bare
ground. A shepherd who would allow his flock to feed at large under
his eye, merely watching his fences and folding his ewes and lambs
at night, was a truant who feared the noonday sun. Such a one had Mr.
Comfort become, and therefore Mr. Prong despised him in his heart.
All sheep will not endure such ardent shepherding as that practised
by Mr. Prong, and therefore he was driven to seek out for himself a
peculiar flock. These to him were the elect of Baslehurst, and of his
elect, Mrs. Prime was the most elect. Now this fault is not uncommon
among young ardent clergymen.

I will not repeat the conversation that took place between the two,
because they used holy words and spoke on holy subjects. In doing so
they were both sincere, and not, as regarded their language, fairly
subject to ridicule. In their judgment I think they were defective.
He sustained Mrs. Prime in her resolution to quit the cottage unless
she could induce her mother to put a stop to that great iniquity of
the brewery. "The Tappitts," he said, "were worldly people,--very
worldly people; utterly unfit to be the associates of the sister of
his friend. As to the 'young man,' he thought that nothing further
should be said at present, but that Rachel should be closely
watched,--very closely watched." Mrs. Prime asked him to call upon
her mother and explain his views, but he declined to do this. "He
would have been most willing,--so willing! but he could not force
himself where he would be unwelcome!" Mrs. Prime was, if necessary,
to quit the cottage and take u