pen doors with unnecessary violence, slamming them with needless force behind him, and clamping heavily from room to room. His wife, who was submissive at the surface

ain took no notice of this, but went on placidly with her sewing. Samson threw his heavily-booted feet noisily into the fender, and still Mrs. Mountain went on placidly, w

said his wife mildly. 'What

down i' the bridge leasowe bare an hour ago, and who should I see but that young imp

ed Mrs. Mountain. 'He's the

was tellin' the young un that outworn lie about the brook. I'd got a shot i' the barrel, and

malice and oncharitable-n

on. 'If ever it should come to my knowledge as a truth I'd put Master Joe

' said his wife, 'it's enough to tur

ashion, had held it long in view in silence. The moment s

at the coals with his heavy-heeled boot, a

' my lord's grandchildren or a son o' the squire's at least,' sa

t's enough to turn your

ued his wife, circling a little neare

unusually warm in the quarrel. 'There's no such a thing as contentment t

o doubt, if we don't tek care. But thanks

manded Samson, turning upon

ode-fashioned Barfield talk as you and me was bred up to, Samson, ain't good enough nowadays f

e, and good enough for mine,'

s was a very well-spoken woman for her day, used to call a cup o' tay a dish o' tay, and that's a thing as only the very ignorant ud stoop to nowadays.' Samson growled, and wallowed discontentedly in the big arm-chair. '

ere's the Reddy as can count acre for

, Samson,' said Mrs. Mountain; 'v

returned

here's nothing so much between us as'd prevent 'em from takin

. 'Abel Eeddy was a bragger and

discovery of the first importance, and that this discovery unexpectedly confirmed her ow

k advantage on it if they

she, with warmth, 'and tha

what?' dem

horn in our Joe's side as long as he lives, poor little

sayin' from me, Mary Ann. I'll have no fine-mouthed, false-natur'd corruption i' my household. If the Redd

husband was malleable, 'you know best, and you're the master here, as it's

e oil of flattery seem

ech and the clothes and the vittles as have been good enough for me ain'

e the airs of a dictator. By and by a serving-maid came in and began to arrange the

approached him with evident dread. 'What's this I

, father,' th

n, rolling bullyingly in his arm-chair, 'as you and him

ked as if he expected the

ot to say to that?'

k a little, 'he's bigger nor

and seizing the little fellow by the jacket, 'do you mean to

at I niver did. It was t

asise the promise. 'If ever you agree to tek a hiding fro

, fa

well as hea

, fa

guilty, but made no answer. 'Is it trew?' Still Joe returned no answer, and his father changing the hand with which he held him, for his own greater co

om the uplifted threatenin

here's nothin' i' the world as I abhor from like a lie I'll teach the

irts crying and trembling. The mother he

said, caressing the child, an

en he was once out of sight of the huge bullying figure and threatening eye and hand, the sight of his cap lying u

lack-blue waste of sky, and when the lad paused to listen for possible sounds of pursuit the hollow moani

relationship which existed between them. It was only quite of late that Joe had begun to discern injustice in his father's bullyings. Children take things as they come, and to the mind of a child-in a modified sense, of course-whatever is, is right. That a thing exists is its own best justification. There is no reason to seek reasons for it. But Joe Mountain, having nearly outgrown this state of juvenile acquiescence, had begun to make inquiry of himself, and, as a result, had familiarised himself with many mental pictures in which he figured as

leep in afterwards, it seemed almost worth while to go back to the brewhouse and obey the paternal command to take his shirt off. To do the child justice, it was less the fear of the thrashing than the hot sense of rebellion at unfairness which kept him from retur

e enemy's country. But the feeling had never been so strong as now. The Mountain Farm was home, and beyond it lay the wide, wide world, looking wide indeed, and bleak and cold. What with hot rebellion at injustice and col

ages came with a delightful thrill of fear, but to be here alone and in the midst of them was altogether another thing. He crept crouching across the bridge, and stowed himself into the smallest possible compass between the end of the

ute, while I s

inevitable-to know that the s

' said another voice, 'and then I

sighs in s

d know a fr

e, and startled Master Richard

thee,

t was quite delightful to be

ising his sworn friend. 'What are yo

ow on a sudden he was as brave and as glad again as ever he had been in his life. Once more adventures loomed ahead for the a

the feat w

smitten with envy and adm

'I'm agooin' to Liv

enterprise upon which his friend had entered. He had half a mind to run away from home himself,

ctical, but at bottom it was nothing of the sort. It was part of the romance of the th

said Joe, some

habod, 'is that young M

id Master

thy speakin' to him, and his feyt

tocrat, who was a little spoiled perhaps, and had been a

bod. 'It's a part o' my busines

'you needn't mind that par

k he had meanwhile balanced on the coping of the

s conscience, he went on again,

unning away for

shook hands and had took on to be friends with one another,

rt as it was, he had had opportunity to grow familiar with this f

to get a hidin

ested this, 'you come and stop in one

'I shouldn't ha' min

ing out to you,' s

swer to his comrade's questions, how he was going to be a sailor or a pirate, 'or summat,' or to have a desert island like Crusoe

rkish complexion. It was cold, it was anxious, it seemed to drag interminably, and it was abominably lonely. If it were to be all

e well-furnished larder of Perry Hall could be effected. When the opportunity came, Master Richard, with no remonstrance from conscience, laid hands upon a loaf and a dish of delicious little cakes of fried pork fat, from which the

atchings. That's gay and fine. I never had as many as I should l

bsorbed that one of the farm-servants went bawling 'Master Richard' about the outlying buildings for two or three minutes before they heard him. When at last the call

he owned, he would have surrendered all of them to be in the brewhouse of the Mountain Farm, even though he were there to take his shirt off But the empty, impassable, awful night stood between him and any refuge, and he must need stay where he was, and sweat with terror under his sacks, through all the prodigious tracts of time which lay between the evening and

aced the course of the brook for a full mile by lanthorn-light. The farm hands had been sent abroad, and had tracked every road without result. Of course the one place where nobody so much as thought of making inquiry was the house of the hereditary foe, but pretty early, in t

lthy, as to excite observation and remark. He was watched and tracked to the barn, and then the discovery came about as a matter of course. The Redd

into his trap, and with his own hands drove him ho

im home,' said Reddy; 'though I do

t him on the ground in silence. Reddy, in silence, turned his horse's head, touched him with

editary enemy became a synonym for whatever is lovely and of good report. She used to look at him in church-she had little other opportunity of observing him-and would think in her childish innocent mind how handsome and noble he looked. He did not speak like the Barfield boys, or look like them, or walk like them. He was a young prince, heir to vast estates, and a royal title in fairyland. If story-books were few and far between, the sentimental foolish widow, Jenn