"And weasels are vermin," cried Roger, "and he has killed Lucy's
dog! But come, Joe, what nonsense is this! Father insists that you
shall come back; he declares this trudging to Bristowe is sheer
fooling, and had already got half a dozen fine schemes in his head
for you. Mount behind me, man: the mare will carry you though you
are a monster; come back and we'll be sworn brothers."
I confess the boy's generosity touched me, and the offer was
tempting; but I steeled my soul against it, and, strange as it may
seem, 'twas the remembrance of Mistress Lucy that put an end to all
wavering. Once I had had no higher aim than to win Captain
Galsworthy's praise; now I felt--but dimly--that I would endure the
toils of Hercules to win a lady's favor. 'Twas the budding of young
love within me--and I never knew that a lad was any the worse for
it.
So I thanked Roger as warmly as I might, but held to my purpose
against all his reasons. The boy was impulsive and quick tempered,
and finding me obdurate after ten minutes' battery of argument, he
flung away in a huff, got up into the saddle, and bidding me go
hang for an obstinate mule he galloped back to the turnpike.
And so I set my face once more for the south. Missing my staff,
which I had thrown away in my haste, I cut myself a large hazel
switch from a copse by the roadside, promising myself a stouter
weapon when I should arrive at a town.
My heart was light: had I not begun to pay Dick Cludde interest on
his crown piece? I was inexpressibly glad that I had been able to
defeat his outrageous scheme, and thinking of this, I wondered why
he had driven southward instead of to his father's house beyond
Shrewsbury.
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