hem less than that. What's the use of cutting myself off from
sixpenny-worth of pleasure here, and sixpenny-worth there. I'm not
saving money for my children, I'm only saving the farmers' rates."
There it is, sir,' said Tregarva; 'that's the bottom of it, sir,--
"I'm only saving the farmers' rates. Let us eat and drink, for to-
morrow we die!"'

'I don't see my way out of it,' said Lancelot.

'So says everybody, sir. But I should have thought those members of
parliament, and statesmen, and university scholars have been set up
in the high places, out of the wood where we are all struggling and
scrambling, just that they might see their way out of it; and if
they don't, sir, and that soon, as sure as God is in heaven, these
poor fellows will cut their way out of it.'

'And blindfolded and ignorant as they are,' said Lancelot, 'they
will be certain to cut their way out just in the wrong direction.'

'I'm not so sure of that, sir,' said Tregarva, lowering his voice.
'What is written'? That there is One who hears the desire of the
poor. "Lord, Thou preparest their hearts and Thine ear hearkeneth
thereto, to help the fatherless and poor unto their right, that the
man of the earth be no more exalted against them."'

'Why, you are talking like any Chartist, Tregarva!'

'Am I, sir? I haven't heard much Scripture quoted among them
myself, poor fellows; but to tell you the truth, sir, I don't know
what I am becoming. I'm getting half mad with all I see going on
and not going on; and you will agree, sir, that what's happened this
day can't have done much to cool my temper or brighten my hopes;
though, God's my witness, there's no spite in me for my own sake.
But what makes me maddest of all, sir, is to see that everybody sees
these evils, except just the men who can cure them--the squires and
the clergy.'

'Why surely, Tregarva, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of
clergymen and landlords working heart and soul at this moment, to
better the condition of the labouring classes!'

'Ay, sir, they see the evils, and yet they don't see them. They do
not see what is the matter with the poor man; and the proof of it
is, sir, that the poor have no confidence in them. They'll take
their alms, but they'll hardly take their schooling, and their
advice they won't take at all. And why is it, sir? Because the
poor have got in their heads in these days a strange confused fancy,
maybe, but s