have it or not. For you see, the parson that's gone didn't more than
half like it, as I could tell by the turn of his hawse-holes when he
came in at the door and me a-smokin'. Not as he said anything; for,
ye see, I was an old man, and I daresay that kep him quiet. But I
did hear him blow up a young chap i' the village he come upon
promiscus with a pipe in his mouth. He did give him a thunderin'
broadside, to be sure! So I was in two minds whether I ought to go
on with my pipe or not."

"And how did you settle the question, Rogers?"

"Why, I followed my own old chart, sir."

"Quite right. One mustn't mind too much what other people think."

"That's not exactly what I mean, sir."

"What do you mean then? I should like to know."

"Well, sir, I mean that I said to myself, 'Now, Old Rogers, what do
you think the Lord would say about this here baccay business?"'

"And what did you think He would say?"

"Why, sir, I thought He would say, 'Old Rogers, have yer baccay;
only mind ye don't grumble when you 'aint got none.'"

Something in this--I could not at the time have told what--touched
me more than I can express. No doubt it was the simple reality of
the relation in which the old man stood to his Father in heaven that