'I never saw a heavier lot of wheat, Thorne, than you've got there in the field beyond the copse. I suppose that's guano,' said the archdeacon.
'Yes, guano. I get it from Bristol myself. You'll find you often have a tolerable congregation of Barchester people out here, Mr Arabin. They are very fond of St Ewold's, particularly of an afternoon, when the weather is not too hot for a walk.'
'I am under an obligation to them for staying away today, at any rate,' said the vicar. 'The congregation can never be too small for a maiden sermon.'
'I got a ton and a half at Bradley's in High Street,' said the archdeacon, 'and it was a complete take in. I don't believe there was five hundred-weight of guano in it.'
'That Bradley never has anything good,' said Miss Tborne, who had just caught the name during her whisperings with Eleanor. 'And such a nice shop as there used to be in that very house before he came.
Wilfred, don't you remember what good things old Ambleoff used to have?'
'There have been three men since Ambleoff's time,' said the archdeacon, 'and each as bad as the other. But who gets it for you at Bristol, Thorne?'
'I ran up myself this year and bought it out of the ship. I am afraid as the evenings get shorter, Mr Arabin, you'll find the reading desk too dark. I must send a fellow with an axe and make him lop off some of those branches.'
Mr Arabin declared that the morning light at any rate was perfect, and deprecated any interference with the lime trees. And then they took a stroll out among the trim parterres, and Mr Arabin explained to Mrs Bold the difference between a naiad and a dryad, and dilated on vases and the shapes of urns. Miss Thorne busied herself among the pansies; and her brother, finding it quite impracticable to give anything of a peculiarly Sunday tone to the conversation, abandoned the attempt, and had it out with the archdeacon about the Bristol guano.
At three o'clock they again went into church; and now Mr Arabin read the service and the archdeacon preached. Nearly the same congregation was present, with some adventurous pedestrians from the city, who had not thought the heat of the mid-day August sun too great to deter them. The archdeacon took his text from the Epistle of Philemon. 'I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom Ihave begotten in my bonds.' From such a text it may be imagined the kind of sermon which Dr Grantly preached, and on the whole it was neither dull, nor bad, nor out of place.
He told them it had become his duty to look about for a pastor for them; to supply the place of one who had been long among them; and that in this manner he regarded as a son him whom he had selected, as St Paul had regarded the young disciple whom he sent forth. Then he took a little merit to himself for having studiously provided the best man he could without reference to patronage or favour; but he did not say that the best man according to his views was he who was best able to subdue Mr Slope, and make that gentleman's situation in Barchester too hot to be comfortable. As to the bonds, they had consisted in the exceeding struggle which he had made to get a good clergyman for them. He deprecated any comparison between himself and St Paul, but said that he was entitled to beseech them for their good will towards Mr Arabin, in the same manner that the apostle had besought Philemon and his household with regard to Onesimus.
The archdeacon's sermon, text, blessing and all, was concluded within the half hour. Then they shook hands with their Ullathorne friends, and returned to Plumstead. 'Twas thus that Mr Arabin read himself in at St Ewold's.
