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'— i.e. who did 

 not claim to be c 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 off 

 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 



