150 I Preach to the Parson. 



is just the other way, they don't understand you and you 

 don't understand them ; they give you credit for good 

 intentions, but they say they don't care about the Pope or 

 the missionaries, which are your two hobbies, and they 

 won'^b read the tracts ; and they won't come to your ser- 

 mons. To tell you the truth when the last grand garden 

 missionary party was held here, and the carriages were put 

 up at the Green Lion, the serious (?) coachmen and foot- 

 men, who were exhorted to band themselves together in 

 support of the poor negi^o, prefen^ed the cricket tent, and 

 turned out to be the most comical dogs, and spoke slight- 

 ingly of their black brother. Of course you say I ought to 

 have stopped the ridicule. Parson, I am only human, and 

 ridicule and the ' humorous ' are my weak points. I did 

 nob encourage them, but I died of laughter on the quiet ; 

 and so would you if you had heard a merry-eyed coachman 

 sj^eculate on his missus, an old maid in lavender silk that 

 would stand alone, marrying a nigger, and foreshadowing 

 the wedding festivities. 



*' You know years ago the parson was generally one who 

 was bred and brought up in a country village, often a 

 country gentleman's youngest son, and would ride 

 and shoot and understand agriculture more or less^ 

 and without being n-ecessarily a sporting parson, he 

 took his day's shooting^ or fishing sometimes; had a 

 knowledge and a sort of kinship Avith men of all classes, 

 saints and sinners, who want a friend in trouble. 



" Remember this : the \allage Benevolent Club dinneiv 

 was never perfect unless the parson went and said grace, 

 and more than often it was so at the cricket dinner too^ 

 and always so at the cricket supper, if — as was not unusual 

 — ^the vicar gave a haunch of mutton or a lamb to be played 

 for once a year ; i.e., the parson provided that much of the 

 east, and the losing side paid the extras. He just went in 



