ides all the unselfish pleasure which David enjoyed on
his young friend's account, a little piece of private and
personal gratification came to him on his own. Ever since Harry's
courtship had begun, David had felt himself in a false position
towards, and had suffered under, old Simon, the rector's
gardener. The necessity for keeping the old man in good humor for
Harry's sake had always been present to the constable's mind; and
for the privilege of putting in a good word for his favorite now
and then, he had allowed old Simon to assume an air of
superiority over him, and to trample upon him and dogmatize to
him, even in the matters of flowers and bees. This had been the
more galling to David on account of old Simon's intolerant
Toryism, which the constable's soul rebelled against, except in
the matter of Church music. On this point they agreed, but even
here Simon managed to be unpleasant. He would lay the whole blame
of the changes which had been effected upon David, accusing him
of having given in where there was no need. As there was nothing
but a wall between the Rectory garden and David's little strip of
ground, in which he spent all his leisure time until the shades
of evening summoned him to the bar of the Red Lion for his daily
pint and pipe, the two were constantly within hearing of one
another, and Simon, in times past, had seldom neglected an
opportunity of making himself disagreeable to his long-suffering
neighbour.

But now David was a free man again; and he took the earliest
occasion of making the change in his manner apparent to Simon,
and of getting, as he called it, "upsides" with him. One would
have thought, to look at him, that the old gardener was as
pachydermatous as a rhinoceros; but somehow he seemed to feel
that things had changed between them, and did not appreciate an
interview with David now nearly so much as of old. So he found
very little to do in that part of the garden which abutted on the
constable's premises. When he could not help working there, he
chose the times at which David was most likely to be engaged, or
even took the trouble to ascertain that he was not at home.

Early on Midsummer day, old Simon reared his ladder against the
boundary wall, with a view of "doctorin'" some of the fruit
trees, relying on a parish meeting, at which the constable's
presence was required. But he had not more than half finished his
operations before David had returned from vestry, and, catching