as I am tellin' you, there came a great
inward swirling of the tide, a very merracle, and lo! the _Tabernacle_
was laid down as by compass alongside the Nitwood road, whence she will
never stir till the day of Final Judgment, as the scripture is. And
Israel, he cuts the door, and Jacob, he gets out the coals and sells
them to the great folk, and the supervisor, he stands by, watching in
vain till he was as black as a sweep, for the brandy that was not there.
But he petitioned Government that Israel should have a concession of
that part of the foreshore--being against all smuggling and maybe
thinking to have him as a sort of spiritual exciseman.

"Yes, Mr. Lyon," Boyd went on, gratified by the interest in his tale,
"'tis wonderful, when you think on't. Empty from stem to stern she is,
with skylights in her deck and windows in her side! Why, there are
benches for the men and a pulpit for Israel. As for Jacob, he has
nothing but his tuning-fork and a seat with the rest.

"And indeed there's more chance that Israel will put a stop to the
Free-trading than all the preventives in the land. He preaches against
it, declaring that it makes the young men fit for nothing else, like
every other way of making money without working for it."

"Ah, Israel's right there!" came from my grandfather.

"But every light has its shadow, and he's made a failure of it with Dick
Wilkes, and may do the like with my wife, Bridget.

"For Bridget, she will be for ever crying at me these days, 'Here, you
Tabernacle man, have you split the kindling wood?' Or 'No
praise-the-Lord for you, lad, till your day's work is done! Go and mend
that spring-cart of the General's that his man has been grumbling about
for a month!'

"And sometimes I have to fill my mouth with the hundred and twenty-first
psalm to keep from answering improper, and after all, Bridget will only
ask if I don't know the tune to that owld penny ballad. 'Tis true enough
about the tune" (Boyd confessed), "me having no pitch-pipe, but Bridget
has no business to miscall scripture, whether said or sung!

"As to Dick Wilkes, that got his lame leg at the attack on--well, we
need not go opening up old scores, but we all know where--has been
staying with us, and that maybe made Bridget worse. Aye, that he has.
There's no one like Bridget for drawing all the riff-raff of the
countryside about her--I know some will say that comes of marrying me.
But 'tis the ould gennleman's own falsehood. Y