ion on my mind, and bore fruit in after
years, when the welfare of many labourers and their families was in my
hands.

It is difficult to convey an idea of the learning I gained from my
good friend, and yet to show how free he was from priggishness, or
from always playing the schoolmaster. He was simply the most charming
of companions, who tried to raise me to his level, and interest me in
what he knew and thought himself, instead of coming down to me, and
talking the patronizing nonsense which is so often supposed to be
acceptable to children.

Across all the years that have parted us in this life I fancy at times
that I see his grey eyes twinkling under their thick brows once more,
and hear his voice, with its slightly rough accent, saying--

"_Think_, my dear lad, _think_! Pray learn to think!"

CHAPTER XVIII

THE ASTHMATIC OLD GENTLEMAN AND HIS RIDDLES--I PLAY TRUANT AGAIN--IN
THE BIG GARDEN

It was perhaps partly because, like most only children, I was
accustomed to be with grown-up people, that I liked the way in which
Mr. Andrewes treated me, and resented the very different style of
another friend of my father, who always bantered me in a playful,
nonsensical fashion, which he deemed suitable to my years.

The friend in question was an old gentleman, and a very benevolent
one. I think he was fond of children, and I am sure he was kind.

He never came without giving me half-a-guinea before he left,
generally slipping it down the back of my neck, or hiding it under my
plate at dinner, or burying it in an orange. He had a whole store of
funny tricks, which would have amused and pleased me if I might have
enjoyed them in peace. But he never ceased teasing me, and playing
practical jokes on me. And the worst of it was, he teased Rubens also.

Mr. Andrewes often afterwards told of the day when I walked into the
Rectory--my indignant air, he vowed, faithfully copied by the dog at
my heels, and without preface began:

"I know I ought to forgive them that trespass against us, but I
can't. He put cayenne pepper on to Rubens' nose."

In justice to ourselves, I must say that neither Rubens nor I bore
malice on this point, but it added to the anxiety which I always felt
to get out of the old gentleman's way.

By him I was put through those riddles which puzzle all childish
brains in turn: "If a herring and a half cost threehalfpence," etc.
And if I successfully accomplished this calculation, I was tripp