33 GOOD LITTLE ROBIN. 9 which they very frequently conversed, and never agreed. The most interesting of all these topics of discussion was the temperance re-___ form. Farmer Little was a member of the society, and, in his plain, sensible way, by his own excellent example, not more than by his counsel, withm the circle of his littl&.geighbor- hood, one of its valuable advocates. Farmer Wild was opposed to it, in preaching and in practice. He was opposed to it chiefly because it was ila sectaridh thing* He preached against it on all occasions, at the mill and the smithy, the town hall and the grocery store ; but he was particularly eloquent upon training days, when the pail of punch was nearly drunk out; for he was not one of those, who preach and never practice. At that time, he was not esteemed an iptemperate man. To be sure, he was frequently in the habit of taking enough, to make liis tongue run faster than casual, and to light up, in his heart, a feeling of universal philantlu-opy; which invariably sub- ' i sided after a good night’s rest. Farmer Wild’s wife derived a great deal of comfont from a
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