There would be no drones in the hive; for every man would reap the full reward of what he produced according to its market value. No man should be paid for spending so many hours daily in a fixed place. That was an erroneous system—the incubator of strikes and of the absurd rules of trades-unions, by which the dull sluggard was enabled to hold down to his own level the quick-witted and industrious. Every man should have a direct interest in doing the best he could, and the most he could or the most he cared to do. Hear him!—the young heart beating with the fond hopes which others have proved so futile; and Madge listening with a smile of joyful conviction and confidence. ‘Another thing we shall sweep away altogether—the petty deceits—the petty strivings to overreach another by lies and tricks of trade, as they are called.’ ‘And how may you be going to do that, I’d like to learn?’ was the sceptical query of the yeoman. ‘By making men feel that it isn’t worth while to tell lies or invent tricks.’ ‘Seems to me you want to invent a new world,’ said Uncle Dick, a placid wreath of smoke encircling his brow, and a contented smile intimating that he was pretty well content to take things as they were. ‘Not at all,’ rejoined Philip. ‘I only want to bring the best of this world uppermost.’ ‘But doesn’t the best find its own way uppermost?’ interposed Aunt Hessy; ‘cream does, and butter does.’ ‘So does froth, and it ain’t the best part of the beer, mother,’ said Uncle Dick with his genial guffaw; ‘and for the matter of that, so does scum.’ ‘They have their uses, though, like everything else,’ was the dame’s prompt check. ‘Not a doubt, and there’s where the mystery lies: things have to be a bit mixed in this world; and they get mixed somehow in spite of you. There ain’t nobody has found out yet a better plan of mixing them than nature herself.’ That was the counter-check; and Madge gave the checkmate. ‘But Philip does not want to alter the natural order of things: he only wants to help people to understand it, and be happy in obeying it.’ This pretty exposition of Philip’s purpose seemed to satisfy everybody, and so it was an evening of happy wonderment at Willowmere. As he was about to go away, Aunt Hessy asked Philip how his uncle looked. ‘Oh—a good hearty sort of man,’ was the somewhat awkward answer, for he did not like to own even to himself that he had been somehow disappointed by the appearance and manner of Mr Shield; ‘but awfully quick and gruff. You will like him, though.’ ‘I like him already,’ she said, smiling. CHAPTER XXII.—HOME AGAIN.