THE 'POWERS* THAT BE. 163 



fcrrcd the previous smooth surface of the field, dank, 

 cold, and intractable as it was. What a pleasant 

 effect upon the broad field of society it would have, 

 if a few furrow-tiles could undermine some of the 

 cold stiff surfaces one meets with here and there, 

 through which nothing penetrates in which no gen- 

 tle plant takes root while the lighter and better 

 particles Nature originally gave, keep silting away, as 

 life advances, leaving nothing but a hard and chilly 

 surface growing colder and more impassive every day 

 to all the genial influences which shower warmth upon 

 the heart that will but expand to and accept them. 



"Well ! You are a-going deep to be sure !" said 

 Mr. Greening, following the fresh-turned furrow, and 

 picking up an antediluvian lump of subsoil now and 

 then, and crushing it between his fingers. "Why 

 there's plenty of sand here : this '11 be mild enough 

 for anything presently; you don't call this a stiff soil 'f " 



" It has lain like a stubborn brute that wouldn't 

 rise, for work or play, ever since I have known it. 

 It won't know itself next year ! It has never borne 

 Turnip or Barley, since the Flood which, in fact, 

 it has never recovered, I suppose, till the draining- 

 tools have bled it in this way. How little one can 

 say what a soil is, till it is drained !" 



M 2 



