The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-19


 On the return of the vestry it was de- cided that as resort to law was against the principles of the chapel they would do justice by praying and drawing lots, passing the latter method on their con struetion of Biblical authority.
 The lots declared that he was guilty. He was suspended at once from church membership and solemn1y adjured to rem der Up the stolen money He listened in silence. Then he stepped toward William Dane and said brokenly:
 The last time I remember using my knife was when I cut a strap for you. I don't remember putting it into my pocket again You stole the money and you have woven plot to lay the sin at my coor But you may prosper for all that. There is no just God that governs the earth righteousE, but God of lies that bears witness against the innocent"
 There was general shudder at the blasphemy, and Silas Marner went out with despair in his soul-that shaken trust in God and man which is little short of madness to a loving nature. In the bitterness of his wounded spirit he said to himself: She will cast me off, too. ' When the clergyman and a deacon came 10 him to inform him that the girl held her engagement at an end, he received the messengers mutely and turned his back on them silently to work at his loom.
 In little more than a month the girl was married to William Dane. The next day silas Marner departed from the town.
 He left his northern hillsides and wan dered south 10 the rich central plain of England till he came to Raveloe Rave Joe lay in a snug, well wooded hollow, an hours journey on horseback from any turnpike, and was never startled by the vibrations of the coach horn or of upblie opinion There was no great park or manor house In its vicinity. Instead, there were several chiefs in Raveloe who could farm badly quite at their. ease, drawing enough money from their bad farming in those war times to live in q rollicking fashion and keep jolly, roar ing Christmas, Whtsun and Eastertide
 When Marner appeared among them the country folk were not quite sure that his trade of weaving indispensable though it was, could be carried on entire ly without the help of the Evil One TO these primitive diggers and delivers any process by which dfxterity sn anything was acquired was so mysterious that it partook of the nature of conjuring. Mar uers large, protuberant eyes and his shy ness, added to the suspicion with which they looked on his trade, combined to make them not only avoid but fear him. Thus he fell naturally into a condition of absolute loneliness, even had he not sought it himself.
 He rented little stone house which had once served as a stone cutters shed, beingsclose to some stone pits long since abandoned. There he set up his loom and began to weave without purpose, without desire, in the unquesdoning activity of a spinning insect. He provided his own meals, fetched his water from the we'll and having fulfilled these simple prompt ings of hunger and thirst sat down again to throw the shuttle.
 Though the people kept aloof from him. they were glad to have him in those days when spinning wheels hummed iu each farm house and even great ladies had their toy spinning wheels of polished oak. Work was plentiful. and it was bet ter paid than in his meager north where, ;x, 1ar of ait,rr had gone to objects of piety. He had guineas put into his hand of which no man expected a share. He had seemed to love it little in the years gone by. Now, when thought was arrested by ut ter bewilderment and all his own path way closed, the gleam of the gold gave him pleasure
 Gradually the guineas, the crowns and the half crowns grew to a heap and Mar ner Used less and less for his wants, try ing to solve the problem of keeping him self strong enough to work IS hours day on the smallest possible outlay.
 He took some bricks from the floor under his, loom and there he deposited the coins. In the night, when he was too weary to work longer, he drew them out to enjoy their companionship He han dled them, he counted them, till their form and color were like the satisfaction of a thirst to him.
 Year after year he lived in his soli- tude, his guineas rising in his iron pot and his life narrowing hardening itself more and more into mere pulsation The same sort of a process has been un- dergone by wiser men when they have been cut off from faith and love-only they have had some erudte research or some ingenius project. Marners face and figure shrank and bent themselves into a consistent mechanical relation to the ob- jectss of his life, so that he produced the same sort of impression as @ handle, which has no meaning standing apart He was so withered and yellow that long before he was 40 the children always called him "Old Master Marner"
 If time passes slowly in quiet regions, it passes unmarked. So it was that all most without the realization of their passage 15 years came and went At the end of that time public opinion in Raveloe regarding Silas Marner was just what it had been in the beginning, with only the addition that he had laid by a fine big sight of money and could buy LID bigger men than himself"
 Then. just before Christmas of that 18th year, his history became blent in a