ust in his eyes, and black
despair clutching at his heart. So he stumbled on, with leaden legs and
bursting sides, till--as if Fate had not yet dealt him her last worst
buffet--on turning a corner in the road he almost ran under the wheels
of a dog-cart, in which, as it pulled up, was apparent the portly form
of Farmer Larkin, the arch-enemy, whose ducks he had been shying stones
at that very morning!

Had Harold been in his right and unclouded senses, he would have
vanished through the hedge some seconds earlier, rather than pain the
farmer by any unpleasant reminiscences which his appearance might call
up; but as things were, he could only stand and blubber hopelessly,
caring, indeed, little now what further ill might befall him.
The farmer, for his part, surveyed the desolate figure with some
astonishment, calling out in no unfriendly accents, "Why, Master Harold!
whatever be the matter? Baint runnin' away, be ee?"

Then Harold, with the unnatural courage born of desperation, flung
himself on the step, and climbing into the cart, fell in the straw at
the bottom of it, sobbing out that he wanted to go back, go back! The
situation had a vagueness; but the farmer, a man of action rather than
words, swung his horse round smartly, and they were in the town again
by the time Harold had recovered himself sufficiently to furnish some
details. As they drove up to the shop, the woman was waiting at the door
with the parcel; and hardly a minute seemed to have elapsed since the
black crisis, ere they were bowling along swiftly home, the precious
parcel hugged in a close embrace.

And now the farmer came out in quite a new and unexpected light. Never
a word did he say of broken fences and hurdles, of trampled crops and
harried flocks and herds. One would have thought the man had never
possessed a head of live stock in his life. Instead, he was deeply
interested in the whole dolorous quest of the tea-things, and
sympathised with Harold on the disputed point in mathematics as if he
had been himself at the same stage of education. As they neared home,
Harold found himself, to his surprise, sitting up and chatting to his
new friend like man to man; and before he was dropped at a convenient
gap in the garden hedge, he had promised that when Selina gave her first
public tea-party, little Miss Larkin should be invited to come and
bring ha whole sawdust family along with her; and the farmer appeared
as pleased and proud as if he hat b