DECEMBER 255 



with her happiness. Where Petunia gets her super- 

 stitions from is always a marvel to me, but one may 

 do anything with her except laugh at her, and 

 luckily her narrative of hopes and fears passed off 

 without any discordant element. 



Petunia has a new Vicar. He is a young gentle- 

 man of very pronounced High Church views, and 

 at present he appears to be alternately the pride 

 and the despair of his parishioners. Since he is 

 not essential to Petunia's well-being as I shall to 

 my dying day believe that for a while his predecessor 

 was she can enjoy a sly joke at his expense. It 

 seems that a poor woman of his flock lay dying, 

 and there was evidently on her mind a load of 

 which she could not be persuaded to unburden 

 herself. The Vicar, yearning to confess and absolve 

 her, lost no opportunity of pressing the poor thing 

 to tell him her trouble, which she promised one day 

 to do on the following morning, when, as the Vicar 

 said, the house would be quiet, and there would be 

 no hindrance to her confession. The dear young 

 man appeared by her bedside that day clad in his 

 ecclesiastical garments of surplice and cassock, and 

 after preliminary prayer he approached the momen- 

 tous subject. It was the first time that he had ever 

 succeeded in bringing one of his new parishioners 

 up to this point. 



"Yes, sir," said Mrs. Giles very feebly, " I've 

 had summat on my mind ever since I know'd I was 

 goin', an' now I'll tell 'ee what 'tis. Jack's all right, 

 but Harry's top-coat won't last the winter." 



This good young man comes from a London 

 parish, and he does not yet know our Wessex 



