To him the pages of the past had not been unfolded,
but of his own instinct be divined that they were full
of interest

Isaac Double.
Isaac Double had not, like his brother Jerry, been
taught to read in his youth. This disadvantage, however,
he overcame in after life by getting his little boy to teach
him his letters. His employer had conceived a great
regard for Isaac, and among other ways of showing it had
sent his child to a day school at Holbrook. He used
also to give the father two shillings a week beyond the
current rate of wages on account of the great amount of
work his unusual strength enabled him to get through.
He could without help load a wagon with wheat, each
sack weighing 250 pounds, besides being an awkward
object to handle, and the swing of his scythe covered nine
feet

Isaac, having learnt from his little boy to read, became
on Sundays an itinerant preacher throughout the neigh-
bourhood as far as East Bergholt, Rushmere, and Har-
wich. At last he was offered a settlement at Chelmon-
diston, where, after a time, he became the resident minister
of the Baptist chapel. This position he held for eighteen
years. At first, because the chapel was in debt, he refused
to take any remuneration for his services ; remaining, as
before, a farm labourer, but ceasing from work on Satur-
days at one p.m., that he might prepare himself for Sun-
day. When the debt was cleared off he withdrew alto-
gether from farm work, and, as the regular minister of the
chapel, accepted a salary of twelve shillings a week. To

M



i62 VILLAGE WORTHIES

the last he never received more, though he had a wife and
second family to maintain.
