68 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



causes. The excommunication, however, was real 

 enough, and ten times more effectual because the sen- 

 tence was pronounced not by the pastor but by the con- 

 gregation. 



Still nothing disturbed the dignity of the elder. He 

 worked away as usual, always with tools in his hands. 

 He would tear away with a plane at a window-frame or 

 a coffin-lid, and tell the listener his wrongs, and how he 

 had been scorned and insulted by people whom he had 

 helped for years, and how they had reversed the teach- 

 ing of the gospel in their bearing towards him- heavier 

 blows and longer shavings -as if there were no such 

 thing as true religion. And, indeed, he would say, in 

 his business transactions, he had over and over again 

 found that men who were not ' professors '—2>. who did 

 not claim to be ' saved '—were more truthful and more 

 to be depended on in their engagements than those who 

 constantly talked of righteousness. For all that — with 

 a tremendous shaving— for all that, the gospel was true- 



So he planed and hammered, and got a large contract 

 on a building estate near a great town, busy as busy, 

 where it was necessary to have a tramway and a loco- 

 motive, or ' dirt-engine,' to drag the trucks with the earth 

 from the excavations. This engine was a source of 

 never-failing amusement to the steady, quiet farmers 

 whose domains were being invaded ; very observant 

 people, but not pushing. One day a part of the engine 

 was tied up with string ; another day it was blowing ofif 

 steam like a volcano, the boiler nearly empty and getting 

 red-hot, while the men rushed to fetch water with a 

 couple of buckets ; finally, the funnel rusted off and a 

 wooden one was put up — a merry joke ! But while 

 they laughed the contractor pushed ahead in Yankee 

 style, using any and every expedient, and making 



