leisurely up to the church--for it was a very hot day--to vote for
Spruggins, were artfully decoyed into the coaches, and voted for
Bung. The captain's arguments, too, had produced considerable
effect: the attempted influence of the vestry produced a greater.
A threat of exclusive dealing was clearly established against the
vestry-clerk--a case of heartless and profligate atrocity. It
appeared that the delinquent had been in the habit of purchasing
six penn'orth of muffins, weekly, from an old woman who rents a
small house in the parish, and resides among the original settlers;
on her last weekly visit, a message was conveyed to her through the
medium of the cook, couched in mysterious terms, but indicating
with sufficient clearness, that the vestry-clerk's appetite for
muffins, in future, depended entirely on her vote on the
beadleship. This was sufficient: the stream had been turning
previously, and the impulse thus administered directed its final
course. The Bung party ordered one shilling's-worth of muffins
weekly for the remainder of the old woman's natural life; the
parishioners were loud in their exclamations; and the fate of
Spruggins was sealed.

It was in vain that the twins were exhibited in dresses of the same
pattern, and night-caps, to match, at the church door: the boy in
Mrs. Spruggins's right arm, and the girl in her left--even Mrs.
Spruggins herself failed to be an object of sympathy any longer.
The majority attained by Bung on the gross poll was four hundred
and twenty-eight, and the cause of the parishioners triumphed.



CHAPTER V--THE BROKER'S MAN