The vicar paid no heed to him, only smiled to himself, and the gardening progressed at such a rate that by five o'clock what had been a wilderness began to wear a very pleasant aspect of freedom from weeds and overgrowth, and with the understanding that the two workers were to come and finish in the morning, they resumed their jackets and went off. Their visit to the vicarage had not passed unnoticed, however; for Sim Slee had been hanging about, seeking for an opportunity to have a word with his wife, and not seeing her, he had carried the news to the Bull and Cucumber. "Things is coming to a pretty pass," he said to the landlord. "That parson's got a way of getting ower iverybody. What do you think now?" "Can't say," said the landlord. "He's gotten big Harry and Tom Podmore working in his garden like two big beasts at plough." "He'll be gettin' o' you next, Sim," said the landlord, laughing. "Gettin' o' me!" echoed Sim. "Not he. He tried it on wi' me as soon as we met; but I wrastled with him by word o' mouth, and he went down like a stone." "Did he though, Sim?" "Ay, lad. Yon parson's all very well, but he's fra London, and he'll hev to get up pretty early to get over a Lincoln man, eh?" "Ay," said the landlord; "but he ain't so bad nayther. A came here and sat down just like a christian, and talked to the missus and played wi' the bairns for long enough." "Did he though," said Sim. "Hey, lad, but that's his artfulness. He wants to get the whip hand o' thee." "I dunno 'bout that," said the landlord, who eked out his income from the publican business with a little farming. "I thowt so at first, and expected he'd want to read a chapter and give me some tracks." "Well, didn't he?" said Sim. "Nay, not he. We only talked once 'bout 'ligious matters, and 'bout the chapel--ay, and we talked 'bout you an' all." "'Bout me?" said Sim, getting interested, and pausing with his mug half way to his lips. "Yes," said the landlord. "It come about throof me saying I see he'd gotten your missus to keep house for him." "Give me another gill o' ale," said Sim, now deeply interested. The landlord filled his mug for him, and went on-- "I said she were 'bout the cleanest woman in these parts, and the way she'd fettle up a place and side things was wonderful." "Yow needn't ha' been so nation fast talking 'bout my wife," said Sim. "I niver said nowt agen her," said the landlord, chuckling to himself. "And then we got talking 'bout you and the chapel." "What did he know 'bout me and the chapel?" cried Sim, angrily. "On'y what I towd him. I said part people went theer o' Sabbath, and that it was a straange niste woshup." "Nice woshup, indeed! why you niver went theer i' your life," said Sim. "I said so I'd heerd," said the landlord, stolidly, "and then I towd him how you used to preach theer till they turned thee out." "What call had you to got to do that?" said Sim, viciously.