Work, work, work--ceaseless work.

How came this?
What could there be to do in a sparely-populated agricultural district with, to appearance, hardly a cottage to a mile?
After nearly an hour's walking he entered the outskirts of a little country town, slumbering outside the railway system, and, turning aside from the street, stopped at the door of the ancient vicarage.

The resident within is the ecclesiastical head of two separate hamlets lying at some miles' distance from his own parish.

Each of these hamlets possesses a church, though the population is of the very sparsest, and in each he maintains a resident curate.

A third curate assists him in the duties of the home parish, which is a large one, that is, in extent.