20 MARCH 



he would " be glad of us " again, and we are all 

 happy together once more. He is not flawless, our 

 Sterculus. No human being, save Heine, ever yet 

 found another human being flawless ; his Made ken 

 was perfect in every way, but she was unluckily 

 dead. We used to think of Sterculus as perfect 

 while he was only so far away as Northumberland ; 

 but with all his faults we are as glad of him as he is 

 of us, and our garden grows and thrives once more 

 under his diligent devotion. 



March 27. We have put Sterculus's brother on 

 for a few weeks, to attend to the grass and to get it 

 into good order after a whole winter's neglect. It 

 is not often that Sterculus will permit us to employ 

 extra labour. For one thing he enjoys the grievance 

 of being overworked, and takes a sour delight in 

 pointing out the results of the labour of " one pair 

 o' 'ands." For another, he, being a Wiltshireman, 

 has but a small opinion of his neighbours in the 

 land of his adoption, and loves to liken them to 

 their own famous farm product, the Berkshire pig. 

 " I've seen a pig in a garden afore now," he says ; 

 "and I cain't say I liked the sight." But he is 

 obliging enough to allow us sometimes to employ 

 his brother Meshach, who has followed him into 

 exile, and Meshach just now is doing a very im- 

 portant work. He is a serious young man, who 

 is suffering from what is called a "conviction." 

 This has nothing to do with the law's majesty, but 

 is merely the correct phraseology in our rural dis- 

 senting circles for intimating that the sufferer is in 

 the first stage of salvation. A conviction of sin is 

 a necessary preliminary to grace. This young man 



