A CONVERT, AND A HERETIC. 41 



retained, was so manifest and immediate, that 

 the very improvement itself prevented further im- 

 provement. A man who had shallow-drained one 

 field, and found that even this did good, imagined 

 himself furnished with a practical argument against 

 deep draining though he had never tried it ; like 

 those who condemn books they have never read, on 

 the authority of opposite-thinking Reviews which 

 they have read. 



This was precisely the sort of reasoning that lay 

 fast and strong in the skull of my old master- 

 drainer ; for master I saw he was 'determined to 

 be. The evidence of a hundred Spirit-levels would 

 have been no answer to " forty years' experience " 

 in draining and ditching. Of this I was quite 

 sure : so we were at a dead pass. One or. the 

 other must give way " and be forever fallen." It 

 was easy to wish him forty years' more experience 

 elsewhere and "good morning;" but this would 

 be only cutting the knot, and probably entailing 

 another in succession. "Providence never interferes 

 unless necessary" He was a good workman, and 

 his authority over his men not a thing that it would 

 be wise to shake, even had that been possible. A 

 thought occurred to me, a very bold thought, all 

 things considered. I knew he hated the sight of 



