It is time to introduce the reader to Parker's Dew and its inmates. We cannot do this better than by following Shady Higgs and his companion on their way from the van.
'Anything occurred in my absence?' asked the librarian in a tone of condescension.
'No,' said Robinson, rather sullenly; 'only the pigs has got into the garden and turned up the flowers.'
'Untoward creatures! Have they made much havoc?'
'They's made a plenty of mess; they's been a-devouring of the cabbages, and Mrs. Gillies were in a fine way because you never looked after them afore you went.'
Now Robinson was not often guilty of such direct violations of duty towards dignity; but his patience had been tried by long waiting under the hedge, and Mrs. Gillies had unjustly punished him for the offence of the marauding pigs. He was, moreover, so laden with parcels that he was obliged to walk with a precision ill according with his taste or age, lest some of them should be dislodged altogether; therefore in respect of temper he was in a poor way.
 
SHADY EGGS HAS A PRINCIPLE TO MAINTAIN.
Shady, whose weak point was sensitiveness in this particular, was divided in his mind between vexation at the misbehaviour of the pigs and discomfort at the republican tone of the lad whom he had long been trying to improve into a character worthy of the honour of serving in the family of De la Mark. He determined to pass by the pigs, and, turning to his companion, said, 'How often, child, am I to exhort you to remember the respect due to your superiors, whether in age, station, or any good conditions?' Perhaps Robinson was not decided as to the required number of times; at any rate, he did not answer, nor was his expression promising. 'Listen,' said the librarian, 'while I repeat a form of words which would have been a becoming answer to my question; and in the first place you should have begun with "No, sir," or "No, Mr. Higgs;" say that, and remember it is for your own good that I enforce this principle on you.' Robinson may not have believed in the philanthropy of his preceptor, or he was heroically indifferent to his own interests; he walked on in dogged silence. '"No, sir," or "No, Mr. Higgs,"' said the librarian, standing still, and looking firmly at the young incorrigible; for, gentle as a lamb at all other times, when Shady had, as he considered, a principle to maintain, or a duty to perform, he was a very lion. Robinson saw that he must give in, and muttered in a low tone, 'No, Mr. Higgs.' 'It is well,' said the librarian; and, considering the better part of valour to be discretion, he conceded the rest of the speech, content with the conquest gained, adding in a more gentle tone, 'I hope in time to cure you of the slaughter of the aspirate, so offensive to a cultivated ear and so general in this place. It is indeed wonderful how letters are subverted and substituted for one another by the careless and ignorant. Take Higgs, for instance: what name more simple? yet do they indiscriminately render it, "Eggs and Iggs, Heggs and Higgs."' Robinson interrupted this meditation by letting fall one of his parcels. 'I fear,' said the librarian, picking it up and laying it carefully in its place, 'the corners of a book which I have purchased for you may have been injured, Robinson.' Robinson looked as if he could bear the calamity. 'There's a knife in that parcel also,' continued Shady, 'with many blades, which I intended for you when your improvement deserved it.'
'Thank'ee, Mr. Higgs, sir,' said Robinson, the knife going straight to his heart; and, as his hands were not at liberty to touch his cap or pull his hair, he made the most deferential nod his circumstances would permit.
'As to the book,' resumed Shady, 'it is not of a character to please you as yet; I had a prospective view in purchasing it, when your mind— But I see you wish to speak.'
'I was just a-going to ask, Mr. Higgs, sir, how many blades there was in the knife?'
Rather disconcerted that the knife should engross the whole of his mind, he gave him first a little lecture on the superior value of that which he seemed to disregard, adding at the end, 'There are four blades, a buttonhook, and a corkscrew.' Oh, how light from that moment was Robinson's load! not that he had the least use for a buttonhook or a corkscrew; but to be the owner of a knife of such multifarious powers was to him a new idea of happiness. In the fulness of his gratitude he volunteered much fresh information, carefully putting 'Mr. Higgs, sir,' whenever an opportunity occurred.
Mr. Bloodworth had been at the Dew, and had high words with Miss De la Mark, and Sir Valary had been very ill, and Mrs. Gillies had wished Mr. Higgs back again twenty times. Altogether it had been a day of commotion at the Dew, from Sir Valary down to his pigs.
'Sacrilegious man!' said Shady, turning whiter with indignation, as the lad repeated some expressions dropped by Bloodworth in the courtyard. 'Had you spoken of this sooner,' he continued, 'we might have hastened.'
'You see, Mr. Higgs, sir, it's impossible to do unpossibilities, and I can't hasten with all these things,' said the lad, whose head came out of his parcels like that of a tortoise from its shell; ''sides, he's gone now, and Sir Valary's better, and miss was in the garden quite comfortable when I came away.'
Shady............