really interesting," cried Kenelm, showing something like
excitement. "I should like to know this terrible suitor."

"That's easy eno'," said the farmer, dryly. "You have only to take
a stroll with Jessie Wiles after sunset, and you'll know more of Tom
Bowles than you are likely to forget in a month."

"Thank you very much for your information," said Kenelm, in a soft tone,
grateful but pensive. "I hope to profit by it."

"Do. I should be sorry if any harm came to thee; and Tom Bowles in one
of his furies is as bad to cross as a mad bull. So now, as we must be up
early, I'll just take a look round the stables, and then off to bed; and
I advise you to do the same."

"Thank you for the hint. I see the young ladies have already gone in.
Good-night."

Passing through the garden, Kenelm encountered the junior Saunderson.

"I fear," said the Votary of Progress, "that you have found the governor
awful slow. What have you been talking about?"

"Girls," said Kenelm, "a subject always awful, but not necessarily
slow."

"Girls,--the governor been talking about girls? You joke."

"I wish I did joke, but that is a thing I could never do since I came
upon earth. Even in the cradle, I felt that life was a very serious
matter, and did not allow of jokes. I remember too well my first dose
of castor-oil. You too, Mr. Bob, have doubtless imbibed that initiatory
preparation to the sweets of existence. The corners of your mouth have
not recovered from the downward curves into which it so rigidly dragged
them. Like myself, you are of grave temperament, and not easily moved
to jocularity,--nay, an enthusiast for Progress is of necessity a man
eminently dissatisfied with the present state of affairs. And chronic
dissatisfaction resents the momentary relief of a joke."

"Give off chaffing, if you please," said Bob, lowering the didascular
intonations of his voice, "and just tell me plainly, did not my father
say anything particular about me?"

"Not a word: the only person of the male sex of whom he said anything
particular was Tom Bowles."

"What, fighting Tom! the terror of the whole neighbourhood! Ah, I guess
the old gentleman is afraid lest Tom may fall foul upon me. But Jessie
Wiles is not worth a quarrel with that brute. It is a crying shame in
the Government--"

"What! has the Government failed to appreciate the heroism of Tom
Bowles, or rather to restrain the excesses of its ardour?"

"Stuff! it is a shame in the Govern