"I like it not—I like it not, Master Tubbs!" replied the sexton. "There were never no such goings on in my young days. I haven't lived to be eighty-six and as able to do my work as ever I was—yes, and one as has kept his church regular ever since he can remember—yes, and helped my father in this very church-yard, as he did his father and grandfather afore him; to be called a miserable sinner at my time of life, except it be by yourself and parson, in the regular way of business, Master Tubbs. I don't say as they did right as brought the poor woman and her babe to this pass—nor neither do I say it is right to have Methodists and Ranters a preaching in this here church-yard of St. Anne's, either." "Mr. Wesley is a regular clergyman of the Church of England; so Mr. Cheriton tells me, and he ought to know," remarked Master Tubbs dubiously. "But who ever heard of a regular-bred parson going out into the fields and preaching to colliers and such trash, at five o'clock in the morning? And that Mr. Wesley did this very morning on Chowdene Fell." "So I hear!" returned the clerk. "More than that, Master Smith, the butcher in our street, was coming home from buying fat sheep, and he stopped to listen. 'More shame for you, Master Smith, and you with a family pew of your own in church,' says I. "'You wouldn't say so, Master Tubbs, if you'd heard 'im,' says he. 'Why, those foul-mouthed men and women—as never used a good word in their lives unless it was to swear by it, stood with the tears running down their black grimy faces, when Mr. Wesley preached to them about their sins being washed whiter than snow. And when he had ended, they all crowded round him to get a word; and one after another was crying and saying— "'"What shall I do to be saved?" and "Oh Master Wesley, can such a sinner as I be saved?"' "'That just shows the truth of what I say, Master Smith,' says I. 'When did you ever see any one with the tears running down under Mr. Cheriton's preaching or Doctor Thurston's,' says I. "'Well,' says he, 'it seems to me like what it says in the Scripture about going to seek the sheep that was lost.' "That was a little too much for me, and says I, very dignified like— "'Master Smith, I bid you good morning. I've been clerk of this here parish thirty year, and I don't think it becomes me, to stand and hear the Scripture applied to colliers and ballast men,' says I, and I walked off." "Parson's taken up with Mr. Wesley, anyhow!" said the sexton doubtfully. "He carried him home with him." "I wish it may end well, that's all!" returned Master Tubbs. "I don't want our church crowded with poor folks, as it was last Sunday. Ours has been the most select congregation in town and I don't want to see it otherwise in my day."