n a tub, like Diogenes,
and was tugged out of it by a dog, not without vigorous resistance, when
anyone chose to pay for the spectacle; the poor badger deriving no
benefit from the outlay. But such visits were fitful. Edwards, indeed,
was faithful to his friend, but even Edwards did not care for Slam's any
longer. He had taken a violent passion for football, and often played,
leaving Saurin to go to the yard alone. On Sundays, indeed, he could
not play football, but neither did he like playing cards on that day.
Saurin laughed him out of his scruples, but not all at once. But Saurin
did not want companionship; he preferred that of Marriner and Company.

Edwin Marriner was a young farmer in the neighbourhood of Weston
College, and he farmed his own land. Certainly it was as small an
estate as can well be imagined, consisting of exactly two acres,
pasture, arable, cottage, and pig-stye included, but undoubted freehold,
without a flaw in the title. He was just twenty-one when his father
died, a year before the time we are treating of, and then Lord
Woodruff's agent made him an offer for his inheritance, which he stuck
to like a very Naboth.

The price named was a good and tempting one, far more indeed than the
land was worth; but when the money was spent he would have nothing for
it but to become a mere labourer, or else to enlist, and he did not
fancy either alternative, while he could manage to live, as his father
did before him, on his patch, which spade-labour made remunerative. He
worked for hire in harvest-time, and that brought something; the pig-
stye yielded a profit, so did a cow, and there were a few pounds reaped
annually from a row of beehives, for the deceased Marriner, though not
very enlightened generally, had learned, and taught his son the
"depriving" system, and repudiated the idiotic old plan of stifling the
stock to get the honey. All these methods of making both ends meet at
the end of the year were not only innocent but praiseworthy; but the
Marriners had the reputation of making less honourable profits, and that
was why Lord Woodruff was so anxious to get rid of them. The two acres
lying indeed in the midst of his lordship's estates, was of itself a
reason why he should be inclined to give a fancy price for them; but
when the proprietor was suspected of taking advantage of his situation
to levy considerable toll on the game of his big neighbour, who
preserved largely, he became a real and