Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/120

 write as one having authority and not as the scribes."

H. H. was greatly entertained by his son's experiences as a magistrate, administering justice amongst these simple children of nature. On one occasion when he was on the bench a woman summoned 4 man for ill-treating her, and knocking her down. The man's defence was that she was his wife, and therefore he had every right to do as he pleased in his treatment of her. She stoutly denied being his wife, and maintained that they had been baptized together but not married. Judgment was given in the woman's favour, but, after the court closed, the magistrate, feeling a little uneasy about the affair, consulted the Bishop. From the Bishop he learnt that the couple had been neither married nor baptized but were vaccinated together!

H. H. and his son had a number of stories to tell each other, and at the end of two hours' conversation his son said:

"And now I must tell you we have had a cable from England announcing the Government's resignation, and I am afraid you will have a great rush to get home in time for the General Election."

"Impossible," cried H. H. "Before I left I had an assurance from Balfour that no election would take place for a long time. Why didn't you tell me the moment I landed?"

"Because," replied the son of his father, "I have been away five years, and I wanted to hear all the home news, and I knew if I told you about the General Election I should never hear a word."

H. H. hurried across America in a fever of impatience. By the generous kindness of Sir Thomas