Old Penny's Dead! 259 



charmed Lyell when fossil-hunting over in Jersey, 

 and well he might. 



But^Old Fenny. H He did not rank quite so high, 

 but would there were hundreds like him. Put 

 him in a room where the current tattle of the 

 town was the staple of conversation and he was 

 soon asleep ; but speak of the meadows, of felling 

 trees, of disastrous freshets, great storms, or a 

 barn-raising, and how his eyes flashed ! Every 

 nerve was alert, and every word weighty with 

 earnestness and truth. Yet he was unlearned ; 

 sadly so, as he interpreted Nature, in the light of 

 modern science ; but, though I knew he was wrong, 

 it was more refreshing to hear him talk than to 

 read any text-book ever printed. His was not 

 misleading ignorance. He held to the moon's 

 influence over the weather, and quoted believingly 

 half the weather-sayings ever heard of; but, with 

 all, there were facts. These you could detach 

 from his inferences and forget the latter straight- 

 way, but the others were ever so cleverly put you 

 could not forget them. And, after all, do we not 

 treat the really learned in much the same fashion ? 

 We are all so wedded to our own opinions that 



