"We live in an atmosphere of simple and permanent things, Birth and Toil, simple seed-time and simple harvest.

The Uproar passes us by." He was always very great upon what he called the permanent things.

"Things change," he would say, "but Humanity--_aere perennius_." Thus the Vicar.

He loved a classical quotation subtly misapplied.

Below, Mrs.Skinner, inelegant but resolute, had involved herself curiously with Wilmerding's stile.
III.
No one knows what the Vicar made of the Giant Puff-Balls.
No doubt he was among the first to discover them.