y?"

"If that isn't superior to a good many of Wordsworth's verses, Wilks,
I'll eat my hat, and that would be a pity this hot weather. Confess now,
you haythen, you," cried the lawyer, making a lunge at his companion
with his stick, which the latter warded off with his book.

"There are some pretty poor ones," the schoolmaster granted grudgingly,
"but the work of a great poet should not be judged by fragments."

"Wilks, apply the rule; I have only given you one stanza of the
unfinished epic, which unborn generations will peruse with admiration
and awe, 'The Grinstun Quarry Restored':--

I have striven hard for my high reward
Through many a changing year
Now, the goal I reach; it is mine to teach.
Stand still, O man, and hear!

I shall wreathe my name, with the brightness of fame,
To shine upon history's pages;
It shall be a gem in the diadem
Of the past to future ages!

Oh, Wilks for immortality!" cried the light-hearted lawyer, rising with
a laugh.

Looking back towards the ascent, he perceived two bowed figures
struggling up the hill under largish, and, apparently, not very light
burdens.

"Wilks, my dear, we're young and vigorous, and down there are two poor
old grannies laden like pack mules in this broiling sun. Let us leave
our knapsacks here, and give them a hoist."

The schoolmaster willingly assented, and followed his friend, who flew
down the hill at breakneck speed, in a rapid but more sober manner. The
old couple looked up with some astonishment at a well-dressed city man
tearing down the hill towards them like a schoolboy, but their
astonishment turned to warmest gratitude, that found vent in many
thankful expressions, as the lawyer shouldered the old lady's big
bundle, and, as, a minute later, the dominie relieved her partner of
his. They naturally fell into pairs, the husband and Wilkinson leading,
Coristine and the wife following after. In different ways the elderly
pair told their twin burden-bearers the same story of their farm some
distance below the western slope of the mountain, of their son at home
and their two daughters out at service, and mentioned the fact that they
had both been schoolteachers, but, as they said with apologetic
humility, only on third-class county certificates. Old Mr. Hill insisted
on getting his load back when the top of the mountain was reached, and
the pedestrians resumed their knapsacks and staves, but the lawyer
utter