THE 'POWERS' THAT BE. 169 



stant.' Inexperience or ignorance would have called 

 it intensely ugly, and would have preferred the pre- 

 vious smooth surface of the field, dank, cold, and in- 

 tractable as it was. What a pleasant effect upon 

 the broad field of society it Avould 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 gentle 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 sur- 

 face, 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?' 



* 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 



