There was also a fine intellectual expression in his countenance, a firm compression about the lips, a fire in his deep sunk eye, and a manly erectness about his figure. But at times a cloudy kind of melancholy seemed to settle on his face, it assumed something bordering on sadness, and this too, when he was only absorbed in deep thought; but after all it helped to make out what a painter would call a ‘fine head.'

The opposing candidate, who stood on his right hand, was a man somewhat advanced in years; a schoolmaster of the old school;' one who thought that to read well, write a fair hand, and be master of the rule of three, was knowledge enough for a king. And by the aid of divers and sundry' whackings,' he had (as he thought, and as many of their parents believed), turned out several promising pupils. He had become a candidate, for (to him) the greatest of all reasons, as the salary offered at Sutton-cum-Bottesford exceeded what he received at Nettlethorpe, ten pounds sterling annually. He had a turn-up-nose, red hair, small sharp ferret-like eyes;-and with him carried the wishes of all his pupils, who prayed that he might either be elected, or break his neck before he again returned to Nettlethorpe.

The other candidate, who stood on the left of Godfrey, was a young merry mercurial dog, who neither cared for the place, nor the salary; but had come, as he said, "to smoke the old covies, enjoy a good dinner, and a holiday," for he had an excellent school of his own at a neighbouring village, and was well known to nearly all there present. The secret was, he had been invited to oppose Godfrey, by squire Ingledew's wealthy opponent-Lord Wildman.

But, we must now come to what was called the business part of the matter; which consisted of sundry interrogations put by the committee to the candidates, and, according to the answers given, so were they considered eligible to the situation.

The clergyman put the first question, fixing his eye on the young man who stood on the left of Godfrey, while he said, "is man singular or plural ?"

“Plural, of course," answered the wag, nudging Godfrey with his elbow as he spoke, as if to say, I'll smoke the old fellow.

wag; "but

you sounded

"I said, man, sir," replied the clergyman, "not men." "I humbly beg your pardon," rejoined the wag; the a so much like e, that I mistook it for men. Man, sir, is always singular; he is indeed a very singular being, as my worthy friend, Gregory Gruff, can testify."

A loud burst of laughter from several of the farmers, made the roof ring again; and long before it subsided, the parson had resumed his

seat.

"What do they call the female of a gander?" inquired a simple old farmer.

"A ganderess," answered the wag, readily, "as count, countess, duke, duchess, and so on."

"Then I've won a quart of ale," said the old man, "for I bet it wasn't goosess."

"How many parsonal pronouns are there?" inquired another. "I only ask for information, for I argue, that in spite of grammar rules, they may run 'em up to any number."

"So they may," answered the young schoolmaster, "as yours, theirs, his, mine, ours, other folks's, somebody else's, and so on, up to your aunt's, uncle's, and everybody's, and down to nobody's."

"What remarkable person died in 1830?" said another, looking at the oldest candidate.

"Squire Henson," replied the old man: "he could drink his six bottles at a sitting."

"He means, what great man died in that year?" said the parson.

"He was one of the greatest men I ever saw," answered the old schoolmaster; "for he weighed above twenty stone; and followed the hounds up to within a few weeks of his death."

"What year, within the last twenty years, did corn fetch the highest price?" inquired an old farmer.

"That year you ground up all your beans, and sold them for the best wheaten flour," replied Gregory Gruff, who had long been fidgetting in his chair. "That year you lost your law-suit with the miller; you remember it well enough. You'll be asking next, how much malt Oliver Cromwell's father consumed at a brewing; or, whether queen Elizabeth cut her finger-nails with a pair of scissors, or a penknife; as if it mattered a farthing whether she bit them off, or not, when they had grown too long. Bah! humbug! all books that contain such like questions, ought to be burnt. Ask your children such things as never were, nor ever will be found out, if you like:—something that will set them a-thinking; and then you will begin to do them good. But such stuff as they put in books, now-a-days, is neither my eye, nor my elbow." After this most original outbreak, Gruff sat down more at his ease, and business again proceeded; for the next questions were put to Godfrey Malvern.

"How many perches are there in my twenty-seven acre field?" was the enquiry of a bluff, hard-featured old farmer.

"I looked at our Jack's

"4,320 perches, and 108 roods," answered Godfrey. "You've hit it to a T," said the old man. arithmetic before I come out. Your the chap for my money, if you can but measure gravel-pits."

"Can you spell me valetudinarian?" enquired another, taking a piece of paper from his waistcoat pocket as he spoke, and poking the side of his companion with his elbow, while he added in a whisper, "This is a poser for him. I copied it out of our Bill's spelling book before I left home, an' it's the hardest word I could find."

Godfrey looked at the clergyman and smiled, then spelt the word correctly as he divided it into its proper syllables.

"Dang thee, thou'rt a 'cute chap, however," said the farmer; "and if thou won't be above measuring a bit of land now and then, I'll vote for thee."

But we should only weary the reader-if indeed we have not already done so were we to recount all the interrogatories which were put to and answered by Godfrey. Some enquired how much so many tons of hay came to at so much a pound; others what a bullock would bring in at so many pounds to the quarter; a third, how many loads there would be in a manure heap, of such a length, breadth, and height; a fourth how many bushels of potatoes a field would produce of so many acres; a fifth, an old wheel-wright, how many square feet of timber there would be in a tree of the dimensions which he stated. All these and numerous other questions Godfrey answered, without much hesitation, and when he left the room, he was elected unanimously; and on being called in again, was welcomed with three-times-three; until the huzzaing was so loud, that Gregory Gruff was compelled to thrust a finger in each ear to drown the loud tumult.

66

Then commenced a shaking of hands, and it was "Drink with me,” -" and with me ;" and so many glasses were uplifted at once, that had Godfrey possessed the rotundity of Falstaff, he could scarcely have swallowed all that were offered him.

Order was at length restored, and the accounts for the previous year audited; many of the items were curious. There was Daniel in the Lion's Den, Ruth and Boaz, slates and pencils, copy-books. Testaments, coals, David and Uriah, pens, ink. The Wisdom of Solomon. Catechisms, spelling books, arithmetics. Samson and Delilah coloured, for so were the Christmas-pieces set down, in the midst of other

items, just as they had been purchased. Then came a list of prize books, not one of which had been given away, as not a single pupil in the school had passed his examination. Godfrey looked blank at this announcement, while Gregory Gruff declared it was all owing to not giving them something original to think about, and that all the blame was to be laid on the trumpery school books. Indeed, Gruff spoke so much to the point, that although not one understood what he said, yet he was elected along with another farmer as Visitor of the school for the ensuing quarter. This announcement at once appeared to soothe the anger of Gregory, and he whispered to the clergyman, that he knew some great change was about to take place, for his horoscope had never yet deceived him. "You shall now see something like a school," continued Gregory; "the present race of clodhoppers shall give way to a new race who can think. I will strike out a new system of education. I will watch the development of their minds, and cultivate them like plants, each in his own congenial soil; for mankind, my dear friend, require treating like flowers, or vegetables; some thrive best in a heavy, others in a light soil. Look at the breed of horses who would think of training the heavy colt for the course? or a thorough-bred racer for the road? Watch their minds; that is the secret, my friend. If one shows an inclination for water, make him a sailor, for that is his element. If for fire, a soldier, for he will always have a hankering after gunpowder. If he is fond of cutting wood, then apprentice him to a carpenter. If cruel, he will make a good butcher, and that may be the means of saving him from murdering some fellow-creature."

So Gregory ran on, endeavouring to prove that all the errors of mankind originate in not allowing the human mind to follow its own bent, or, to use his own words, "In not letting children have their own way from the first."

It would but retard the progress of our story to describe the dinner furnished by the hostess, and eaten by the committee. "It went off," as our readers may suppose, much lighter than it came on, although it was a most weighty affair. With one or two exceptions, they were men who worked with both hands, who never dreamed of feeding themselves with a fork only, while they could carry up such ample mouthfuls on the huge broad-ended knives-knives made purposely for peas, and such small matters, a score of which might be uplifted at a time.

Poor Parson Preedom looked aghast at the "small portion" of lamb