"Business as usual!" had been Mr Pamphlett's advice to the young man. "There was, for a day or two--I won't deny it--a certain--er-- tendency to what I may call _nervousness_ in the City. Can we wonder at it, holding as we do so many--er--threads?" Mr Pamphlett held up his two hands, and spread them as though they contained a skein of wool to be unwound. "But the Chancellor of the Exchequer took steps. Opposed as I am in a general way to the present Government, I am free to admit that, at this juncture, the Chancellor of the Exchequer realised his responsibilities and--er--took steps. Markets may--er-- fluctuate for some weeks to come--may, as I would put it, exhibit a certain amount of--er--unsteadiness. But we shall tide that over, easily--as I am advised, quite easily. Great Britain's credit is solid; that's the word, _solid_: and if that--er--solidarity holds true of our monetary system with"--here Mr Pamphlett expanded and contracted his fingers as if gathering gossamers--"its delicate and far-reaching complexities. . . That was an excellent duck, James," said he, turning to his brother-in-law. "I don't remember when I've tasted a better." "Maria believes in basting, I thank God," said his brother-in-law, Farmer Pearce acknowledging the compliment. "'Tis a more enterprisin' life you lead by the sea, if your business calls you that way. You pick up more money--which is everything in these days--and you see the ships and yachts going to and fro, and so forth. But you can't breed ducks for table. Once they get nigh to tidal water, though it be but to the head of a creek, the flesh turns fishy, and you can't prevent it. We must set it down to Natur', I suppose. But inland ducks for me!" "Maria has a great gift with the stuffing, too. . . . You're spoilt, Ebenezer--and so too is Obed here--up in this fat of the land, though you don't know it. Eh?" said Mr Pamphlett sharply as his nephew Obed, who had been sitting by and listening sulkily, made an impatient movement,--"But as I was going on to say, if we, that hold (as I may put it) the threads of commerce in these times, believe in sitting solid, why surely the same applies--only more so--to agriculture." "Which is the backbone of Old England," interposed Farmer Pearce, "an' always has been." "There's two ends to most backbones," put in young Obed, who had been tracing patterns with his fingers on the surface of the mahogany table. "And I don't pretend to have the cleverer one. But I don't want the other to be kicked into doin' summat; which is what'll happen to us farmin' chaps if we don't start enlistin'." "The aggericultural community," persisted his father, who had picked up that resonant term at meetings of the Farmers' Union, "is, an' always has been, the backbone of England." "Then 'tis time we showed it, in the Yeomanry."