So, says I, 'Minister, I ax your pardon, I feel very
ugly at havin' given you offence, but I didn't mean it, I do assure
you. It jist popped out unexpectedly, like a cork out of one of
them 'ere cider bottles, I'll do my possibles that the like don't
happen agin, you may depend; so 'spose we drink a glass to our
reconciliation.' 'That I will,' said he, 'and we will have another
bottle too, but I must put a little water into MY GLASS (and he dwelt
on that word, and looked at me, quite feelin', as much as to say,
don't for goodness sake make use of that 'ere word HORN agin, for
it's a joke I don't like), 'for my head hain't quite the strength my
cider has. Taste this, Sam,' said he (openin' of another bottle);
'it's of the same age as the last, but made of different apples, and
I am fairly stumped sometimes to say which is best.'
"'These are the pleasures,' says he, 'of a country life. A man's own
labour provides him with food, and an appetite to enjoy it. Let him
look which way he will, and he sees the goodness and bounty of his
Creator, his wisdom, his power, and his majesty. There never was
anything so true, as that 'ere old sayin', "Man made the town, but
God made the country," and both bespeak their different architects in
terms too plain to be misunderstood. The one is filled with virtue
and the other with vice.
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