. THE COUNTRY SUNDAY. 65° 
any possible excuse for not doing anything they were 
asked they would not do it—not for money: they were 
out of what was wanted, or they had promised it, or they 
couldn't find it, or they were too busy, and so all through 
the whole course of daily life. 
Now the most remarkable part of this bitter perse- 
cution was the fact that the elder had lent money to 
almost all the principal members of the congregation. 
The bold speculator had never been appealed to in vain 
by any onein difficulty. Some had had a hundred, some 
fifty, some twenty, some ten—farmers whose corn had 
been a loss instead of a profit, whose hops had sold for 
less than the cost of picking them, little tradesmen who 
had a bill to meet, handicraft men who could not pay 
the men who worked side by side with them, cottagers 
who needed an outhouse built, and others who lacked the 
means to pay for a funeral. There seemed no one to 
whom he had not lent money for some purpose, besides 
the use of his name as security. Fortune had given to 
him, and he had given as freely to others, so that it was 
indeed a bitter trial to the heart :— 
Blow, blow, thou winter wind, 
Thou art not so unkind 
As man’s ingratitude. 
Thy tooth is not so keen, 
Because thou art not seen, 
Although thy breath be rude. 
In his stern pride he did not condescend to put in 
motion any revenge against these petty poltroons, but 
went on his way with absolute indifference to all outward 
seeming. His family, who were perhaps more nearly 
touched in the affairs of daily life than he was, consoled 
themselves with the old country proverb, ‘ Ah, well, we 
shall live till we die, if the pigs don’t eat us, and then 
Fr 
