Farmer Bluff was silent. He knew so well how many men there were among the tenantry—how many who owned manors, too—with little or no principle.
It was on his conscience, too, how he himself had sold his soul time and again for drink, for pleasure, or for gain.
"There 'll be some things you'll have to take as you find 'em," said he presently.
"I should like to alter that,"' said Hal. "There must be a remedy."
"No one has ever found it yet," said Farmer Bluff.
"Perhaps they haven't looked in the right place," said Hal. "I expect it's in the Bible, if it's anywhere."
"Maybe 'tis," said Farmer Bluff; and then he was silent a good while again. "I don't know much, about the Bible," he continued presently. "I didn't use to read it when I could, and I can't hold a feather now, much less a book."
So it came about, that Hal proposed to read it for him. And when Maggie came upstairs, he was sitting by her uncle's bedside, with the Bible on his knee. But the information Maggie brought put a stop to reading rather suddenly.
"Uncle Bluff!" cried she. "Blazer's loose again. I don't know where he is."
