different from what they are. Don't fancy that I want
the common people, who've got nothing, to pretend to dictate to their
betters, because I hate to see a parcel of fellows who are called lords
and squires trying to rule the roast. I think, sir, that it is men like
me who ought to be at the top of the tree! and that's the long and the
short of it. What do you say?"

"I've not the least objection," said the crestfallen parson, basely.
But, to do him justice, I must add that he did not the least know what
he was saying!

CHAPTER XV.

Unconscious of the change in his fate which the diplomacy of the parson
sought to effect, Leonard Fairfield was enjoying the first virgin
sweetness of fame; for the principal town in his neighbourhood had
followed the then growing fashion of the age, and set up a Mechanics'
Institute, and some worthy persons interested in the formation of that
provincial Athenaeum had offered a prize for the best Essay on the
Diffusion of Knowledge,--a very trite subject, on which persons seem to
think they can never say too much, and on which there is, nevertheless,
a great deal yet to be said. This prize Leonard Fairfield had recently
won. His Essay had been publicly complimented by a full meeting of the
Institute; it had been printed at the expense of the Society, and had
been rewarded by a silver medal,--delineative of Apollo crowning Merit
(poor Merit had not a rag to his back; but Merit, left only to the care
of Apollo, never is too good a customer to the tailor!) And the County
Gazette had declared that Britain had produced another prodigy in the
person of Dr. Riccabocca's self-educated gardener.

Attention was now directed to Leonard's mechanical contrivances. The
squire, ever eagerly bent on improvements, had brought an engineer
to inspect the lad's system of irrigation, and the engineer had
been greatly struck by the simple means by which a very considerable
technical difficulty had been overcome. The neighbouring farmers now
called Leonard "Mr. Fairfield," and invited him on equal terms to their
houses. Mr. Stirn had met him on the high road, touched his hat, and
hoped that "he bore no malice." All this, I say, was the first sweetness
of fame; and if Leonard Fairfield comes to be a great man, he will
never find such sweets in the after fruit. It was this success which had
determined the parson on the step which he had just taken, and which he
had long before anxiously meditated. For, du