The reins were in his hand; he was going to drive home the wealthy wagon; but he stopped and stooped, and Charlotte, standing on tip-toes, handed him a glass of cream.

"God love thy bonny face," he said, with a beaming smile, as he handed her back the empty glass.

Then off went the great horses with their towering load, treading carefully between the hedges of the narrow lane, and leaving upon the hawthorns many a stray ear for the birds gleaning.
When the squire returned he called to Julius and his daughters, "What idle-backs you are! Come, and bind a sheaf with me." And they rose with a merry laugh, and followed him down the field, working a little, and resting a little; and towards the close of the afternoon, listening to the singing of an old man who had brought his fiddle to the field in order to be ready to play at the squire's "harvest-home." He was a thin, crooked, old man, very spare and ruddy.

"Eighty-three years old, young sir," he said to Julius; and then, in a trembling, cracked voice, he quavered out,-- "Says t' auld man to t' auld oak-tree, Young and lusty was I when I kenned thee: I was young and lusty, I was fair and clear, Young and lusty was I, many a long year.
But sair failed is I, sair failed now; Sair failed is I, since I kenned thou.
Sair failed, honey, Sair failed now; Sair failed, honey, Since I kenned thou." It was the appeal of tottering age to happy, handsome youth, and Julius could not resist it.

With a royal grace he laid a guinea in the old man's open palm, and felt fully rewarded by his look of wonder and delight.
"God give you love and luck, young sir.