Van de Lear."
"I see how it is," exclaimed the visitor. "You think because I am
studying for orders I must be looked up to. Aggy, that's got nothing to
do with social things. When I take the governor's place in our pulpit I
shall make my sermons for this generation altogether crack, sentimental
sermons, and drive away dull care. That's my understanding of the good
shepherd."
"Mr. Van de Lear, there are some cares so natural that they are almost
consolation. Under the pressure of them we draw nearer to happiness.
What merry words should be said to those who were bred under this roof
in such misfortunes as I have now--as the absent have?"
Podge saw Agnes put her handkerchief to her face, and her neck shake a
minute convulsively. Duff Salter here sneezed loudly: "Jericho!
Jerichew! Je-ry-cho-o!" He produced a tortoise-shell snuff-box, and
Podge took a pinch, for fun, and sneezed until the tears came to her
eyes and her hair was shaken down. She wrote on the tablets,
"Men could eat dirt and enjoy it."
He replied, "At last dirt eats all the men."
"It's to get rid of them!" wrote Podge. "My boys at school are dirty by
inclination. They will chew anything from a piece of India rubber shoe
to slippery elm and liquorice root.
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