The child crept close and put a sticky little hand confidingly into
the tired old palm. The two looked strangely alike, for the world
seems much the same to those who leave it behind as to those who
have but taken the first step on its circular pathway.

"'Ook at my kitty," she said, pointing to the small creature in her
lap. Then, as the old man touched it with trembling fingers she
went on--"'Oo isn't my grandad; he's away in the sky, but I'll kiss
'oo."

I worked on, hearing at intervals the old piping voice and the
child-treble, much of a note; and thinking of the blessings
vouchsafed to the simple old age which crowns a harmless working-
life spent in the fields. The two under the hedge had everything
in common and were boundlessly content together, the sting of the
knowledge of good and evil past for the one, and for the other
still to come; while I stood on the battlefield of the world, the
flesh, and the devil, though, thank God, with my face to the foe.

The old man sat resting: I had promised him a lift with my friend
the driver of the flour-cart, and he was almost due when the
child's grandmother came down the road.

When she saw my other visitor she stood amazed.

"What, Richard Hunton, that worked with my old man years ago up at
Ditton, whatever are you doin' all these miles from your own
place?"