the matter.  Squire Clamp was the luckless man.  The dog had seized his coat-tail, and had pulled it forward, so that he stood face to face with the Squire, who was vainly trying to free himself by poking at his adversary with a great baggy umbrella.  James sent away the dog with a reprimand, but laughed as he followed the angry man into the house.  He always cited this afterwards as a new proof of the sagacity of the grim and uncompromising Caesar.

“S-sorry you’ve had such a t-time with the dog,” said Mr. Hardwick; “he don’t g-ginerally bark at pup-people.”

“Oh, no matter,” said the Squire, contemplating the measure of damage in the skirt of his coat.  “A good, sound sermon Mr. Rook gave us to-day.  The doctrines of the decrees and sovereignty, and the eternal destruction of the impenitent, were strongly set forth.”

“Y-yes, I sp-spose so.  I d-don’t profit so m-much by that inst-struction, however.  I th-think more of the e-every-day religion he u-usually preaches.”—­Mr. Hardwick trotted one foot with a leg crossed and with an air which showed to his children and to Mark plainly enough how impatient he was of the Squire’s beginning so far away from what he came to say.

“Why, you don’t doubt these fundamental points?” asked Mr. Clamp.

“No, I don’t d-doubt, n-nor I don’t th-think much about ’em; they’re t-too deep for me, and I ler-let ’em alone.  We shall all un-know about these things in God’s goo-good time.  I th-think more about keepin’ peace among n-neighbors, bein’ kuh-kindly to the poor, h-helpin’ on the cause of eddication, and d-doin’ ginerally as I would be done by.”—­Mr. Hardwick’s emphasis could not be mistaken, and Squire Clamp was a little uneasy.

“Oh, yes, Mr. Hardwick,” he replied, “all the town knows of your practical religion.”  Then turning to Mark, he said, blandly, “So you came home yesterday.  How long do you propose to stay?”

The young man never had the best control of his temper, and it was now rapidly coming up to the boiling-point.  “Mr. Clamp,” said he, “if you had asked a pickerel the same question, he would probably tell you that you knew best how and when he came on shore, and that for himself he expected to get back into water as soon as he got the hook out of his jaws.”

“I am sorry to see this warmth,” said Mr. Clamp; “I trust you have not been put to any trouble.”

“Really,” said Mark, bitterly, “you have done your best to ruin me in the place where I earn my living, but ’trust I have not been put to any trouble’!  Your sympathy is as deep as your sincerity.”

“Mark,” said Mr. Hardwick, “you’re sa-sayin’ more than is necess-ssary.”

“Indeed, he is quite unjust,” rejoined the lawyer.  “I saw an alteration in his manner to-day, and for that reason I came here.  I prefer to keep the friendship of all men, especially of those of my townsmen and brethren in the church whose piety and talents I so highly respect.”