488 WHERE ON EARTH CAN HE BE? 



his English byxsacks-ur * was pointing near to ten o'clock, 

 the hour that the service should commence. 



" Let us now leave the worthy man in safety, though in 

 bad company, and see how things were going on at the 

 Parsonage. Here there was more hurry and flurry, and 

 more confusion of tongues amongst the women, than if the 

 Dean or the Bishop had been expected. One ran here, and 

 another there. If any of the newly-arrived congregation 

 were met with, the same question was put to each : * Have 

 you seen the Pastor ?' But all gave the same answer : ' No !' 

 An old and faithful serving-man, however, who, to give his 

 ears a little ease from the eternal jabbering going on amongst 

 the women, had retired apart, began to reason within himself 

 as to where his master could be ; and it was not long before 

 it entered his mind that by possibility he might have fallen 

 into the Varg-grop. 



" Without communicating his suspicions to any one there- 

 fore, he hastened towards the spot, and on his near approach 

 he heard the parson singing with great fervour the 99th 

 (Sw.) Psalm. Overjoyed at the discovery, he advanced to the 

 edge of the abyss, and reached out his hand to the reverend 

 divine for the purpose of helping him up. But the master 

 was heavier by several stone than the man ; and in his anxiety 

 to escape from imprisonment, he pulled at the proifered hand 

 with so much force as to draw the poor fellow down into the 

 pit. Here now stood the trio, though certainly with alto- 



* Literally, breeches' fob-watch. These machines, from their great size 

 resembling turnips, in short are much valued by the peasantry, who on 

 fitting and unfitting occasions exhibit them, together with the gaudy and 

 bulky appendages. For the most part they were made by Ward of London, 

 whence their usual designation of Vardare. 



