Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/32

 turn, and it was the remembrance of this which was at the bottom of his recent violent outburst.

The fact was, that the conspiring peasants having again refused to pay their tithes, the rector had distrained, and according to a preconcerted arrangement, they had all allowed their old manure carts and wagons to be seized, and drove up one day in solemn procession before the Parsonage, where the sale was to take place. Then amid great merriment they bought their goods back again and drove off exultant.

If the Provst then had reasonable cause to be displeased with his predecessor's relations with his parishonersparishioners [sic], he was in return doubly grateful for the princely home he had left behind him. It exactly corresponded to what, in his opinion, was a fitting residence for a Vicar of Christ in the parishes of Veilby and Skibberup; and it was partly on this account that he still held this—in proportion to his age and seniority—very moderate living. Moreover he was suffering from an imaginary mortification at the hands of the higher powers, which he attributed to the personal spite of his immediate superior, namely the Bishop, an unusually liberal minded man both in ecclesiastical affairs and in politics. It was in fact not one of Provst Tönnesen's failings to undervalue himself, and as he had more than once been passed over on the filling up of some of the larger appointments, he looked upon this as an intentional slight, and determined that he