her husband took up his tools, and scoured the country in quest of more remunerative work than was to be had in the neighborhood of Barford. For months he never crossed his own threshold. In his wanderings he encountered poverty beside which even the Barford standard was one of comparative plenty. In Herefordshire he found able-bodied men with wives and families toiling from morning till night for seven shillings a week. With one of these he once lodged. How the wife and children subsisted Arch could never ascertain; but the husband fared thus: "Breakfast, a dry crust; dinner, ditto; supper,—the great meal of the day,—sometimes 'scald-chops,' a dainty dish consisting of broken bread moistened by pouring hot water upon it, and sometimes a pint of cider warmed over the fire and a crust dipped into it. This from Monday till Saturday, and on Sunday occasionally a bit of bacon." He beheld the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; and he vowed in the bitterness of his heart, that, if ever an opportunity should present itself, he would try to be that comforter. The clock struck sooner than he expected. Presently he was enabled to return to Barford to undertake "jobs" which required the assistance of other "hands." As an employer he was not merely considerate, but generous. His own specialty as an agricultural laborer is hedge-cutting: he is the champion hedge-cutter of all England.
All his life Mr. Arch has been addicted to reading. His earlier studies were chiefly of a pietistic character: he devoured the Bible, the "Pilgrim's Progress," Pike's "Early Piety," "Pearson on Infidelity," et hoc genus omne. He still preaches to vast audiences, generally twice and sometimes three times on Sundays. Origi-
