A farmer in the north of England some years ago, called on his neighbor, the late Earl Fitzwilliam, to complain to him that his wheat field had been very much trampled down and injured by his lordship's horses and hounds, as they were hunting in a certain wood near by. He stated that the young wheat had been so cut up and destroyed that he had no hope of making a crop. "Well, my friend," said his lordship, "I know we have frequently met in the woods near your field, and no doubt have injured it very much. If you can procure an estimate of the loss, I will repay you." The farmer replied, that knowing his lordship's character for honor and honesty, he had already requested a friend to assist him in making an estimate of the damage; and as the crop seemed to be quite destroyed, he thought that fifty pounds ($250) would not more than pay him for his loss. The Earl at once paid him the money.

As the harvest however approached, the wheat grew, and in those parts of the field which had been most trampled, the growth was the strongest, and the crop the heaviest. The farmer went again to his lordship, and being introduced, said, "I am come again, my lord, respecting the field of wheat near the woods." His lordship immediately recollected the circumstance, "Well, my friend, did I not allow you sufficient to pay you for your loss?" "Yes, my lord, but I find that I have sustained no loss at all. For where your horses had most cut up the land, the crop is the most promising, and I have, therefore, brought the fifty pounds back again."

"Ah," exclaimed the venerable Earl, "this is what I like; this is as it should be, between man and man." He then entered into conversation with the farmer, and asked him many questions respecting his family, the number of his children, &c. His lordship then went into another room, and returning, presented the farmer with a check for one hundred pounds ($500), and said, "take care of this, and when your eldest son becomes of age, present it to him, and tell him where it came from, and what was the occasion of its being presented. It will leave your son something to think about, when you and I are both dead."

We know not which to admire most, the honesty of the farmer, on the one hand, or the benevolence and wisdom displayed by the Earl, on the other. For, while doing a noble act of generosity, he was handing down a lesson of integrity to another generation. Neither of these good men knew anything about the tricks of extortioners practiced in these days. But they had well learned the christian precept, "as ye would that men should do unto you, even do the same unto them."