s as tinkers appointed by Providence to mend the
holes. That Snarley's position represented a hole of the first magnitude
was plain enough to Lady Lottie the moment she became acquainted with
the facts. Her first step was to interest her brother, the Earl of
Clodd, a noted breeder of pedigree stock, on the old man's behalf; her
second, to rouse the slumbering soul of the victim to a sense of the
injustice of his lot. I believe she succeeded better with her brother
than with Snarley; for with him she utterly failed. Her discourse on the
possibilities of bettering his position might as well have been spoken
into the ears of the senior ram; and if the ram had responded, as he
probably would, by pinning Lady Lottie against the wall of the barn, her
overthrow would have been no more complete nor unmerited than that she
actually received from Snarley Bob.

For it so happened that Providence, in equipping the lady for her
world-mending mission, had forgotten to give her a pleasant voice. Now
if there was one thing in the world which made Snarley "madder" than
anything else could do, it was the high-pitched, strident tones of a
woman engaged in argument. The consequence was that his self-restraint
broke down, and before the lady had said half the things she had meant
to say, or come within sight of the splendid offer she was going to make
on behalf of the Earl of Clodd, Snarley had spoken words and performed
actions which caused his benefactress to retreat from the farmyard with
her nose in the air, declaring she "would have nothing more to do with
the horrid brute." She was not the first of Snarley's would-be
benefactors who had formed the same resolve.

Now this extraordinary conduct on Snarley's part was by no means due to
any transcendental contempt for money. I have myself offered him many a
half-crown, which has never been refused; and Mrs. Abel, unless I am
much mistaken, has given him many a pound. Still less did it originate
from rustic contentment with a humble lot; nor from a desire to act up
to his catechism, by being satisfied with that station in life which
Providence had assigned him. For there was no more restless soul within
the four seas of Britain, and none less willing to govern his conduct by
moral saws. And stupidity, which would probably have explained the facts
in the case of any other dweller in those parts, was not to be thought
of in Snarley's case. "I knew what the old gal was drivin' at before
she'