"Nay, nay, it is not. Your suspicions were right. I was starving when you came to me, and the fastings were enforced. I could not dig, to beg I was ashamed. The few poor people of my faith I could not trouble; and it had come to this, that I felt ready to lie down and die in the land where once our Church was wealthy, when I found that the age of miracles was, after all, not passed, for the last man of whom I could expect such a service brought me aid." "Bah, stuff! Sit down, man, and have some more bread and some of that good yellow butter. You'd have done as much for me;" and, half forcing his visitor into a chair, the host watched until he had made a hearty meal. "No more? Well, then, Mistress Hilberry shall clear away, and then I have a surprise for thee." Going to the door, and summoning the housekeeper, that lady quickly cleared the table, a lamp was lit, another jug of ale was placed upon the board, and then, as soon as they were alone, Master Joseph Peasegood went to an old-fashioned cupboard, and tenderly taking out the pipes and bag of tobacco he had received from Gil, he placed them on the table with a smile. "Pipes? tobacco?" exclaimed Father Brisdone, drawing back his heavy chair. "Yes; do they frighten thee?" said Master Peasegood. "You do not mean to smoke?" said Father Brisdone, earnestly. "I mean for both of us to smoke," said Master Peasegood. "Would it not be a sin?" "Nay, I think not; though our Solomon Jamie says it is. But how can we know whether we ought to forbid or no if we have not proved smoking to be a sin?" "A fallacious argument, Brother Joseph," said the father, smiling. "We ought, then, to rob and slay and covet, to try whether they are sins before we condemn?" "Nay," said Master Peasegood, taking up a pipe, and beginning to open the little linen bag of weed, taking some out, and carefully shredding it with a knife. "Those have all been proved to be sins. This has not." "If you wish, I will try it, then," said the father; and, as the tobacco was passed to him, he filled the little pipe before him, took the light provided by his friend, held it to the bowl, and puffed, while Master Joseph Peasegood did the same. One little pipeful was smoked in silence, the ashes tapped from the bowl, and they smoked another pipeful, staring stolidly one at the other, as they sat on opposite sides of the table, till they had done, when there was a pause. "What do you think of it?" said Master Peasegood, who, after several paroxysms of coughing, had refrained from trying to swallow the smoke, and contented himself with taking it into his mouth, and puffing it out. "I feel more sick than sinful," said the father, quietly. "And you?" "I have a peculiar tightness of the brain, and a tendency to fancy I am as thin as thee, instead of as fat as I. Father Brisdone, in my present state, I think the greatest sin I should commit would be to go to my couch. Wilt try another pipe?"