impolitic to conceive and imprudent to execute, since, in such a case,
to justify was to recriminate.

"I wonder at you, Master Stirn,--if Mother could hear you! You know it
was you who would not let me go to church; it was you who told me to--"

"Fit a young gentleman, and break the Sabbath," said Mr. Stirn,
interrupting him with a withering sneer. "Oh, yes! I told you to
disgrace his honour the squire, and me, and the parridge, and bring us
all into trouble. But the squire told me to make an example, and I
will!" With those words, quick as lightning flashed upon Mr. Stirn's
mind the luminous idea of setting Lenny in the very stocks which he had
too faithfully guarded. Eureka! the "example" was before him! Here he
could gratify his long grudge against the pattern boy; here, by such a
selection of the very best lad in the parish, he could strike terror into
the worst; here he could appease the offended dignity of Randal Leslie;
here was a practical apology to the squire for the affront put upon his
young visitor; here, too, there was prompt obedience to the squire's own
wish that the stocks should be provided as soon as possible with a
tenant. Suiting the action to the thought, Mr. Stirn made a rapid plunge
at his victim, caught him by the skirt of his jacket; and in a few
seconds more, the jaws of the stocks had opened, and Lenny Fairfield was
thrust therein,--a sad spectacle of the reverses of fortune. This done,
and while the boy was too astounded, too stupefied, by the suddenness of
the calamity, for the resistance he might otherwise have made,--nay, for
more than a few inaudible words,--Mr. Stirn hurried from the spot, but
not without first picking up and pocketing the half-crown designed for
Lenny, and which, so great had been his first emotions, he had hitherto
even almost forgotten. He then made his way towards the church, with the
intention to place himself close by the door, catch the squire as he came