"What in thunder's your hurry?" demanded the corporal, halting for a moment on the crest of the rise and gazing down. "I told you as I'd fetch a party to clear the patch for you; an', what's more, the spuds shall be delivered to your door sometime this very day. But the Captain can't spare a man this side o' nine o'clock, an' so I was to tell you." He descended the slope, mopping his brow. "Pretty good tubers?" Nicky-Nan hypocritically dived a hand into the sack, drew forth a fistful, and held them out in his open palm. "Ay, and a very tidy lot," the corporal nodded. "And what might be the name of 'em?" "_Duchess o' Cornwall_ they're called: one o' the new Maincrops, an' one o' the best. East-country grown. You may pull half a dozen or so for yourself if you'll do me the favour to accept 'em." "Thank 'ee, friend. There's nothin' I relish more than a white-fleshed 'taty, well-grown an' well-boiled. Not a trace o' disease anywhere," observed the corporal, running his eye over the rows and bringing it to rest on the newly-turned soil at his feet. "Eh? Hullo!" He stooped and picked up a sovereign. "That's mine!" Nicky-Nan claimed it hastily. "I must ha' dropped it--" "Well, _I_ didn', anyway--an' that's honest." The corporal handed it over with just a trace of reluctance. "But it only shows," he added, eyeing Nicky-Nan thoughtfully, "as there's nothing in this world so deceptive as appearances." CHAPTER XVII. THE SECOND SERMON. "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth." ". . . And thou shalt be called by a new name. . . . Thou shalt no more be termed _Forsaken_; neither shall thy land be termed _Desolate_: but thou shalt be called _Hephzi-bah_, and thy land _Beulah_: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. . . ." ". . . I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night." ". . . The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, 'Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured. But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; and they that have brought it together shall drink it . . . in the courts of my holiness.'" "Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people."