rtly take away the use of a man's limbs and
throw him on the parish, if he'd got no children to look to. No, no;
it was no stroke that would let a man stand on his legs, like a horse
between the shafts, and then walk off as soon as you can say "Gee!"
But there might be such a thing as a man's soul being loose from his
body, and going out and in, like a bird out of its nest and back; and
that was how folks got over-wise, for they went to school in this
shell-less state to those who could teach them more than their
neighbours could learn with their five senses and the parson. And
where did Master Marner get his knowledge of herbs from--and charms
too, if he liked to give them away? Jem Rodney's story was no more
than what might have been expected by anybody who had seen how Marner
had cured Sally Oates, and made her sleep like a baby, when her heart
had been beating enough to burst her body, for two months and more,
while she had been under the doctor's care. He might cure more folks
if he would; but he was worth speaking fair, if it was only to keep him
from doing you a mischief.

It was partly to this vague fear that Marner was indebted for
protecting him from the persecution that his singularities might have
drawn upon him, but still more to the fact that, the old linen-weaver
in the neighbouring parish of Tarley being dead, his handicraft made
him a highly welcome settler to the richer housewives of the district,
and even to the more provident cottagers, who had their little stock of
yarn at the year's end. Their sense of his usefulness would have
counteracted any repugnance or suspicion which was not confirmed by a
deficiency in the quality or the tale of the cloth he wove for them.
And the years had rolled on without producing any change in the
impressions of the neighbours concerning Marner, except the change from
novelty to habit. At the end of fifteen years the Raveloe men said
just the same things about Silas Marner as at the beginning: they did
not say them quite so often, but they believed them much more strongly
when they did say them. There was only one important addition which
the years had brought: it was, that Master Marner had laid by a fine
sight of money somewhere, and that he could buy up "bigger men" than
himself.

But while opinion concerning him had remained nearly stationary, and
his daily habits had presented scarcely any visible change, Marner's
inward life had been a history and a metam