brute. O crikey, but it's 'ot;
'owever, I must 'urry on, for grinstuns is grinstuns, and a gal, with a
rich hold huncle, ridin' a fine 'orse, with a nigger behind 'im carryin'
his portmantle, haint to be sneezed hat. Stre'ch your pegs, Mr. Rawdon,
workin' geologist hand minerologist!"

"By Jove!" cried Coristine, when the Grinstun man was out of sight;
"that cad has met the colonel, and has been talking to him."

"A fine nephew-in-law he will get in him!" growled Wilkinson; "I have
half a mind--excuse me Corry."

"I thought you were very much taken with the old Southerner."

"Yes, that is it," and the dominie relapsed into silence.

"It's about lunch time, Wilks, and, as there's sure to be no water on
the top of the hill, I'll fill my rubber bag at the spring down there,
and carry it up, so that we can enjoy the view while taking our
prandial."

Wilkinson vouchsafed no reply. He was in deep and earnest thought about
something. Taking silence for consent, Coristine tripped down the hill a
few yards, with a square india rubber article in his hand. It had a
brass mouthpiece that partly screwed off, when it was desirable to
inflate it with air, as a cushion, pillow, or life-preserver, or to fill
it with hot water to take the place of a warming-pan. Now, at the spring
by the roadside, he rinsed it well out, and then filled it with clear
cold water, which he brought back to the place where the schoolmaster
was leaning on his stick and pondering. Replacing the knapsack, out of
which the india rubber bag had come, the lawyer prepared to continue the
ascent. In order to rouse his reflective friend, he said, "Wilks, my
boy, you've dropped your fossils."

"I fear, Corry, that I have lost all interest in fossils."

"Sure, that Grinstun man's enough to give a man a scunner at fossils for
the rest of his life."

"It is not exactly that, Corry," replied the truthful dominie; "but I
need my staff and my handkerchief, and I think I will leave the
specimens on the road, all except these two Asaphoi, the perplexing,
bewildering relics of antiquity. This world is full of perplexities
still, Corry." So saying, the dominie sighed, emptied his bandanna of
all but the two fossils, which he transferred to his pocket, and, with
staff in hand, recommenced the upward journey. In ten minutes they were
on the summit, and beheld the far-off figure of the working geologist on
the further slope. In both directions the view was magnificent. Th