 the old squires, and Harvest Homes, and Christmas merryings. -
Cutting up the land! There 's no pride in livin' theer, nor anywhere, as I sees,
now.«
    »You mean the railways.«
    »It's the Devil come up and abroad ower all England!« exclaimed the
melancholy ancient patriot.
    A little cheering was tried on him, but vainly. He saw with unerring
distinctness the triumph of the Foul Potentate, nay his personal appearance in
they theer puffin' engines. The country which had produced Andrew Hedger, as he
stated his name to be, would never show the same old cricketing commons it did
when he was a boy. Old England, he declared, was done for.
    When Redworth applied to his watch under the brilliant moonbeams, he
discovered that he had been listening to this natural outcry of a decaying and
shunted class full three-quarters of an hour, and The Crossways was not in
sight. He remonstrated. The old man plodded along. »We must do as we're
directed,« he said.
    Further walking brought them to a turn. Any turn seemed hopeful. Another
turn offered the welcome sight of a blazing doorway on a rise of ground off the
road. Approaching it, the old man requested him to bide a bit, and stalked the
ascent at long strides. A vigorous old fellow. Redworth waited below, observing
how he joined the group at the lighted door, and, as it was apparent, put his
question of the whereabout of The Crossways. Finally, in extreme impatience, he
walked up to the group of spectators. They were all, and Andrew Hedger among
them, the most entranced and profoundly reverent, observing the dissection of a
pig.
    Unable to awaken his hearing, Redworth jogged his arm, and the shake was
ineffective until it grew in force.
    »I've no time to lose; have they told you the way?«
    Andrew Hedger yielded his arm. He slowly withdrew his intent fond gaze from
the fair outstretched white carcase, and with drooping eyelids, he said: »Ah
could eat hog a solid hower!«
    He had forgotten to ask the way, intoxicated by the aspect of the pig; and
when he did ask it, he was hard of understanding, given wholly to his last
glimpses.
    Redworth got the directions. He would have dismissed Mr. Andrew Hedger, but
there was no doing so. »I 'll show ye on to the Crossways House,« the latter
said, implying that he had already earned something by showing him the
