gers. That his play was not elegant
they were not likely to find out; his bowling they set small store by;
but his batting was of a fine, slashing, superior sort which soon
carried the Murewell Club to a much higher position among the clubs of
the neighbourhood than it had ever yet aspired to occupy.

The rector had no time to play on Sundays, however, and, after they had
hung about the green a little while, he took his friend over to the
Workmen's Institute, which stood at the edge of it. He explained that
the Institute had been the last achievement of the agent before
Henslowe, a man who had done his duty to the estate according to his
lights, and to whom it was owing that those parts of it, at any rate,
which were most in the public eye, were still in fair condition.

The Institute was now in bad repair and too small for the place. 'But
catch that man doing anything for us!' exclaimed Robert hotly. 'He will
hardly mend the roof now, merely, I believe, to spite me. But come and
see my new Naturalists' Club.'

And he opened the Institute door. Langham followed in the temper of one
getting up a subject for examination.

Poor Robert! His labour and his enthusiasm deserved a more appreciative
eye. He was wrapped up in his Club, which had been the great success of
his first year, and he dragged Langham through it all, not indeed,
sympathetic creature that he was, without occasional qualms. 'But after
all,' he would say to himself indignantly, 'I must do _something_ with
him.'

Langham, indeed, behaved with resignation. He looked at the collections
for the year, and was quite ready to take it for granted that they were
extremely creditable. Into the old-fashioned window-sills glazed
compartments had been fitted, and these were now fairly filled with
specimens, with eggs, butterflies, moths, beetles, fossils, and what
not. A case of stuffed tropical birds presented by Robert stood in the
centre of the room; another containing the birds of the district was
close by. On a table farther on stood two large open books, which served
as records of observations on the part of members of the Club. In one,
which was scrawled over with mysterious hieroglyphs, any one might write
what he would. In the other, only such facts and remarks as had passed
the gauntlet of a Club meeting were recorded in Robert's neatest hand.
On the same table stood jars full of strange creatures--tadpoles and
water larvae of all kinds, over which Robert