Marvel’s loss was great, but his mortification still greater; for his cousin Goodenough laughed at him without mercy. Something must be done, he saw, to retrieve his credit: ad the heronry was his resource. “What will signify a few trees, more or less,” thought he, “or the loss of a few silver sprigs, or the death of a few geese, or the waste of a few quills and feathers? My sheep will sell well, my thistles will bring me up again; and as soon as I have sold my sheep at Partney fair, and manufactured my thistles, I will set out with my money in my pocket for Spalding, and make my bargain for the heronry. A plume of herons’ feathers is worth a thousand guineas! My fortune will be made when I get possession of the Spalding heronry.” So intent was Marvel upon the thoughts of the Spalding heronry, that he neglected every thing else. About a week before the fair of Partney, he bethought himself of his sheep, which he had left to the care of a shepherd boy: he now ordered the boy to drive them home, that he might see them. Their jackets hung upon them like bags: the poor animals had fallen away in the most deplorable manner. Marvel could scarcely believe that these were his sheep; or that these were the sheep which he had expected to be the pride of Lincolnshire, and which he had hoped would set the fashion of jackets. Behold, they were dying of the rot! “What an unfortunate man I am!” exclaimed Marvel, turning to his cousin Wright, whom he had summoned along with Goodenough, in the pride of his heart, to view, value, and admire his sheep. “All your sheep, Wright, are fat and sound: mine were finer than yours when I bought them: how comes it that I am so unlucky?” “Jack of all trades, and master of none!” said Goodenough, with a sneer. “You forgot, I am afraid, what I told you, when first you bought these sheep,” said Wright, “that you should always keep them in fold, every morning, till the dew was off: if you had done so, they would now be as well and thriving as mine. Do not you remember my telling you that?” “Yes; and I charged this boy always to keep them in fold till the dew was off,” replied Marvel, turning with an angry countenance to the shepherd boy. “I never heard nothing of it till this minute, I am sure, master,” said the boy.