When the Reverend Harmless-Simpleton called, he divided his visit into two parts, one of which was devoted to Mr. Battishill and the other to Miss Cicely, in the ratio of three to seven. Mr. Battishill was pleased to see and hear him, and Miss Cicely became deeply impressed with the reverend gentleman’s amiability and good intentions. So, little by little, the old Squire faded away. There was another old man, who, much about the same time, made his exit from the stage, but in an altogether different manner. Grizzly Cobbledick had been denied the linney in which to lie at night, ’like a heckamal in a haystack.’ He was obliged, much as he objected to it, to return to the Giant’s Table. As he feared that his old woman would be disposed to trouble his repose there, he provided himself with the means of sleeping soundly, in the shape of a stone jar full of spirits. Moreover, he paid a libation to her manes every night. He threw some drops of gin into the fire, saying, ’There, old cat! take that, and lie quiet.’ Grizzly was so far civilised by association with men that he knew the value of money. He had lost his shyness in the presence of men and his reluctance to appear in the neighbourhood of houses, and he would go into Zeal and hang about the taverns for drink and tobacco. Now he had money of his own, and he launched into extravagance. He purchased a jar of Hollands, and carried it off with him to the Table, to comfort him at night—that he might lie in the straw and suck and nod, then suck and doze, open an eye and suck once more, and then drop off into a drunken stupor. That which amused and puzzled him greatly was to see the spirit flame when he cast some drops on the lire. Water quenched fire: how came a liquor to leap into flame? This was more than his dull mind could take in. But it seemed to him that the essence of fire must be in the spirit, that was why it warmed him within, and danced and glowed in his veins. John Herring had been as good as his word. He had sent him straw, and the straw was heaped up at the back of the chamber. ’Take care, Grizzly,’ said the man who brought him the bundles. ’Take care that your fire don’t get to it; keep it well off.’ Grizzly had sense enough to do this. When he was sleepy the old man went backwards into the straw, disappearing entirely with the exception of his head and the hand that held the stone jar. The only firing was peat, and that did not flame. When Herring cast him his purse, it was with the words: ’Some men cannot be helped. One must let them go to the devil their own way. You are one, and the sooner you go the better.’ Then Grizzly replied, ’I be going—I be a going as fast as I can.’ He kept his word. He went even faster than he intended, and the way he went was this. He was sitting over the fire one evening. He had his stone jar under his arm, and he was patting it.