CHAPTER THE FIRST.
THE COMING OF THE FOOD.
I.
Our theme, which began so compactly in Mr.Bensington's study, has already spread and branched, until it points this way and that, and henceforth our whole story is one of dissemination.

To follow the Food of the Gods further is to trace the ramifications of a perpetually branching tree; in a little while, in the quarter of a lifetime, the Food had trickled and increased from its first spring in the little farm near Hickleybrow until it had spread,--it and the report and shadow of its power,--throughout the world.

It spread beyond England very speedily.

Soon in America, all over the continent of Europe, in Japan, in Australia, at last all over the world, the thing was working towards its appointed end.

Always it worked slowly, by indirect courses and against resistance.