lvent in the heart of your pile, and you can't get
at them, you know, to mend them."

"Of course not; but they are double as thick as ever were used before;
and have been severely tested before laying 'em down: besides, don't you
see each of them has got his great-coat on? eighteen inches of puddle
all the way."

"Ah," said Grotait, "all the better. But it is astonishing what big
embankments will sometimes burst if a leaky pipe runs through them. I
don't think it is the water, altogether; the water seems to make
air inside them, and that proves as bad for them as wind in a man's
stomach."

"Governor," said the engineer, "don't you let bees swarm in your bonnet.
Ousely reservoir will last as long as them hills there."

"No, doubt, lad, since thou's had a hand in making it."

The laugh this dry rejoinder caused was interrupted by the waitress
bringing out tea; and these Hillsborough worthies felt bound to chaff
her; but she, being Yorkshire too, gave them as good as they brought,
and a trifle to spare.

Tea was followed by brandy-and-water and pipes: and these came out in
such rapid succession, that when Grotait drove Little and two others
home, his utterance was thick, and his speech sententious.

Little found Bayne waiting for him, with the news that he had left Mr.
Cheetham.

"How was that?"

"Oh, fell between two stools. Tried to smooth matters between Cheetham
and the hands: but Cheetham, he wants a manager to side with him through
thick and thin; and the men want one to side with them. He has sacked
me, and the men are glad I'm going: and this comes of loving peace, when
the world hates it."

"And I am glad of it, for now you are my foreman. I know what you are
worth, if those fools don't."

"Are you in earnest, Little?"

"Why not?"

"I hear you have been dining with Grotait, and he always makes the
liquor fly. Wait till tomorrow. Talk it over with Mrs. Little here. I'm
afraid I'm not the right sort for a servant. Too fond of 'the balmy,'
and averse to the whole hog." (The poor fellow was quite discouraged.)

"The very man I want to soothe me at odd times: they rile me so with
their suicidal folly. Now, look here, old fellow, if you don't come to
me, I'll give you a good hiding."

"Oh! well, sooner than you should break the peace--. Mrs. Little, I'd
rather be with him at two guineas a week, than with any other master at
three."

When he had got this honest fellow to look after his interests, yo