“Really! do you think so? Well, if you wish to do that, I am ready to meet you half way and accept short service, so that you can clear out next Michaelmas; for I don’t mind telling you that I know another party who will be glad to take the land.” “Indeed, sir, I was not aware,” answered Samuel, running his fingers through his straight hair uncomfortably—for the last thing that he desired was to part with these particular marshes. “Not that I should wish to stand between a landlord and a better offer in these times. Still, Mr. Levinger, I don’t hold it right, as between man and man, to slip like that behind a tenant’s back as has always paid his rent.” The conversation, which was a long one, need not be pursued further. Samuel was of the opinion that Mr. Levinger should bear the entire cost of the shed, which the latter declined to do. At length, however, an arrangement was effected that proved mutually satisfactory; the “said landlord” agreeing to find all material necessary, and to pay the skilled labour, and the “said tenant” undertaking to dig the holes for the posts and to cut the reed for thatch. “Ah, Mr. Rock,” said Levinger, as he signed a note of their contract, “it is very well for you to pretend that you are hard up; but I know well enough, notwithstanding the shocking times, that you are the warmest man in these parts. You see you began well, with plenty of capital; and though you rent some, you have been wise enough to keep your own land in hand, and not trust it to the tender mercies of a tenant. That, combined with good farming, careful living and hard work, is what has made you rich, when many others are on the verge of ruin. You ought to be getting a wife, Mr. Rock, and starting a family of your own, for if anything happened to you there is nowhere for the property to go.” “We are in the Lord’s hands, sir, and man is but grass,” answered Samuel sententiously, though it was clear from his face that he did not altogether appreciate this allusion to his latter end. “Still, under the mercy of Heaven, having my health, and always being careful to avoid chills, I hope to see a good many younger men out yet. And as for getting married, Mr. Levinger, I think it is the whole duty of man, or leastways half of it, when he has earned enough to support a wife and additions which she may bring with her. But the thing is to find the woman, sir, for it isn’t every girl that a careful Christian would wish to wed.” “Quite so, Mr. Rock. Have a glass of port, won’t you?”—and Mr. Levinger poured out some wine from a decanter which stood on the table and pushed it towards him. Then, taking a little himself by way of company, he added, “I should have thought that you could find a suitable person about here.”