“Drive on, boys,” cried the testy old gentleman; “don’t waste any more time with that old idiot!”

“Idiot!” exclaimed the old man with a grin, as he stood in the middle of the road with the gate half-closed, watching the chaise which rapidly diminished in the increasing distance. “No⁠—not much o’ that either; you’ve lost ten minutes here, and gone away as wise as you came, arter all. If every man on the line as has a guinea give him, earns it half as well, you won’t catch t’other chay this side Mich’lmas, old short-and-fat.” And with another prolonged grin, the old man closed the gate, reentered his house, and bolted the door after him.