one foot with a leg crossed and with an
air which showed to his children and to Mark plainly enough how impatient
he was of the Squire's beginning so far away from what he came to say.

"Why, you don't doubt these fundamental points?" asked Mr. Clamp.

"No, I don't d-doubt, n-nor I don't th-think much about 'em; they're t-too
deep for me, and I ler-let 'em alone. We shall all un-know about these
things in God's goo-good time. I th-think more about keepin' peace among
n-neighbors, bein' kuh-kindly to the poor, h-helpin' on the cause of
eddication, and d-doin' ginerally as I would be done by."--Mr. Hardwick's
emphasis could not be mistaken, and Squire Clamp was a little uneasy.

"Oh, yes, Mr. Hardwick," he replied, "all the town knows of your practical
religion." Then turning to Mark, he said, blandly, "So you came home
yesterday. How long do you propose to stay?"

The young man never had the best control of his temper, and it was now
rapidly coming up to the boiling-point. "Mr. Clamp," said he, "if you had
asked a pickerel the same question, he would probably tell you that you
knew best how and when he came on shore, and that for himself he expected
to get back into water as soon as he got the hook out of his jaws."

"I am sorry to see this warmth," said Mr. Clamp; "I trust you have not
been put to any trouble."

"Really," said Mark, bitterly, "you have done your best to ruin me in the
place where I earn my living, but 'trust I have not been put to any
trouble'! Your sympathy is as deep as your sincerity."

"Mark," said Mr. Hardwick, "you're sa-sayin' more than is necess-ssary."

"Indeed, he is quite unjust," rejoined the lawyer. "I saw an alteration in
his manner to-day, and for that reason I came here. I prefer to keep the
friendship of all men, especially of those of my townsmen and brethren in
the church whose piety and talents I so highly respect."

"S-sartinly, th-that's right. I don't like to look around, wh-when I take
the ker-cup at the Sacrament, and see any man that I've wronged; an' I
don't f-feel comf'table nuther to see anybody der-drinkin' from the same
cup that I think has tried to w-wrong me or mine."

"You can save yourself that anxiety about Mr. Clamp, Uncle," said Mark.
"He is not so much concerned about our Christian fellowship as he is about
his fees. He couldn't live here, if he didn't manage to keep on both sides
of every little quarrel in town. Having done me what mischief he could, he
w