d
practice. He was also superintendent of the church Sunday-school, and
the very life of the Temperance Society and Band of Hope, of both which
associations the vicar, who was himself an abstainer, was the president.
Indeed, he was the clergyman's right-hand in the carrying out of every
good work in the place. He was something of a reader of such sterling
and profitable works as came in his way, but his Bible was his chief
study.

His special characteristics were a clear head, a large stock of shrewd
common sense, and an invincible love of truth and straightforwardness,
so that he could hold his ground against any man in the place, William
Foster the styptic not excepted. Not that Bradly was at all fond of an
argument; he avoided one when he could do so consistently, preferring to
do good by just sowing seeds of truth in his own humble way, leaving it
to God to deal with the tares and weeds.

One of his favourite modes of sowing was to carry along with him at all
times a little bundle of religious and temperance tracts, and to offer
these whenever he had an opportunity, commonly accompanying the offer
with some quaint remark which would often overcome the reluctance to
accept them, even in those who were opposed to his principles and
practice. From this habit of his he was generally known among the
working-classes of Crossbourne by the nickname of "Tommy Tracts," or
"Tracks," as it was usually pronounced--an epithet first given in scorn,
but afterwards generally used without any unkindly feeling. Indeed, he
was rather proud of it than otherwise; nor could the taunts and gibes
which not unfrequently accompanied it ever ruffle in the least his good-
humoured self-possession.

His family, which consisted of himself, his wife, their two sons, and a
daughter, all grown up, and an invalid sister of his own, lived in a
comfortable house on the outskirts of the town.

This house he had built for himself out of the profits of his own
industry. Like its owner, it was rather of an eccentric character,
having been constructed on an original plan of his own, and, in
consequence, differed from any other dwelling-house in the town. Of
course, he was not left without abundance of comments on his
architectural taste, many of them being anything but complimentary, and
all of them outspoken. This moved him nothing. "Well, if the house
pleases me," he said to his critics, "I suppose it don't matter much
what fashion it's of,