ruggled to rise to their present position,
ignoring the necessity of thrift, a happy-go-lucky generation. And
then, at the end of it all, a deep chasm, into which they will all
fall headlong; an immense pyre that will consume all their vanities
and profligacies."

"They deserve to be burnt, indeed they do, uncle."

"Someone was even talking of establishing a public library here.
Well let them complete the ruin. It is as well. I hope to be dead by
that time though. Life, then, will be intolerable. I hope to sleep
with those worthy champions of labour--my ancestors--in the
churchyard yonder.

"Books!--what do they want books for? I never yet knew a man who
read books that was worth a farthing.

"I knew one once who was versed in book-lore, but, worse luck to
him, he could not bind a wheat-sheaf or weed a perch of parsnips,
and the result--bankruptcy; failure. That's what it comes to.

"Books!--do they want to make schoolmasters of us all, or do they
wish us to be always reading our eyes out instead of attending to
our business?

"Books!--they are only good for idle loafers; they offer an excuse
for shunning one's duty. 'I want to read a bit,' they say when told
to do something. 'Oh, let me just finish this page, it is so
interesting,' they plead, when asked to quickly fetch some article.
This is what Adele used to do, but I nipped this slothful tendency
in the bud. I would have none of it."

He stopped his discourse and his walk, gazed at his nephew who had
fallen across the table and was now sleeping soundly; then
recommenced his peregrinations.

"I am disgusted with the world; I don't know what it will all come
to. Some of these modern farmers are even discarding the _grande
charrue_. Oh! shades of our ancestors. The great plough--the only
feast of the year that is worth anything, mutton and roast beef, ham
and veal, cider by the gallon and a jovial company of good old sons
of the soil.

"It is horrible thus to see our old routine trampled underfoot, our
ancestors' customs sneered at."

Mr. Rougeant was extremely animated. Like nearly every other country
Guernseyman, he was opposed to change.

He walked about with distorted features, his eyes shining with a
strange light.

He thought of his family dwindling away; of his daughter
disregarding his commands and disobeying him. In his innermost soul
he felt convinced that she would never marry his nephew. He cast his
eyes in the direction of the latter. Wh