dwindled first into annual, then into biennial calls, and would
doubtless have extended themselves into triennial marks of remembrance,
if our neighbours had but remained long enough. "To be sure," added he,
recollecting, probably, how he, with his stricter sense of politeness,
used to stave off a call for a month together, taking shame to himself
every evening for his neglect, retaining 'at once the conscience and the
sin!' "To be sure, Norris was a sad bore! We shall find the hill easier
to climb when the Camdens live on the top of it." An observation to
which I assented most heartily.

On we went gaily; just pausing to admire Master Keep, the shoemaker's
farming, who having a bit of garden ground to spare, sowed it with wheat
instead of planting it with potatoes, and is now, aided by his lame
apprentice, very literally carrying his crop. I fancy they mean to
thrash their corn in the woodhouse, at least there they are depositing
the sheaves. The produce may amount to four bushels. My companion, a
better judge, says to three; and it has cost the new farmer two superb
scarecrows, and gunpowder enough for a review, to keep off the sparrows.
Well, it has been amusement and variety, however! and gives him an
interest in the agricultural corner of the county newspaper. Master Keep
is well to do in the world, and can afford himself such a diversion.
For my part, I like these little experiments, even if they be not over
gainful. They show enterprise: a shoemaker of less genius would never
have got beyond a crop of turnips.

On we went--down the lane, over the bridge, up the hill--for there
really is a hill, and one of some steepness for Berkshire, and across
the common, once so dreary, but now bright and glittering, under the
double influence of an August sun, and our own good spirits, until we
were stopped by the gate of the lawn, which was of course locked, and