"And what do you generally do after dinner on a Sunday?" "The lads go on the green for a bit of a frolic, and I go up to the Plough, and spend a few hours along with some of my neighbours." "Can you read?" "A little, Sir; but my wife can read as well as any of my master's daughters." "Have you a Bible?" "Yes; but I don't read it much, because I can't understand it." "Don't you think you could understand the following passage:--'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son.'" [Illustration: "WE WORK ON SUNDAY TILL DINNER-TIME." Vol. i. page 110.] "Why, yes, Sir; that's plain enough to be understood; but such poor folks as us can't afford to rest from labour on a Sunday." "Do you think that God would command poor people to rest from their labour on the Sabbath, unless He knew that it would be for their good? And, besides, do you think that poverty will be admitted as an excuse for a neglect of duty? Suppose your master was to tell you to fetch up the cows from yon meadow, would your poverty be an excuse for not doing it?" "No; to be sure not. I ought to do what master bids me." "If, then, you ought to do what master bids you, _ought you not to do what God commands you_?" "Why, yes, Sir; I must say that you are right." "But you tell me that after dinner you go up to the Plough, where I suppose you spend some of your money. Now, your poverty ought to be an excuse to keep you from a public-house; but it ought not to be an excuse to keep you away from church." "Why, Sir, I must say there is reason in what you say, but I don't spend much; and I like to have a little talk with my neighbours." "But do you never think of another world?" "Not so much as I should, Sir, I must say." "Don't you know that you are born to live for ever? During the first period of your existence you have to live in this world, and this period is very short; during the next period of your existence you will have to live in the invisible world, and that will never end. And while here you are making preparation for your future and changeless condition of existence--for heaven, and its happiness and dignity, or for hell, and its misery and degradation." "Why, Sir, to speak the truth, I never heard anything about this till lately; but last Lady-day master hired a fellow-servant, who has often talked to us on this subject; but I never give heed to what he says, because he is a _fantic_, so Miss says, who has just come home from boarding-school." "A fanatic you mean; but that is a nick-name which people who have no religion give to those who have. Now, I suppose your fellow-servant understands more about the Bible and about religion than you do?"