ubt not he would allow me
milk and bread, for which I would willingly do a turn of work in
the morning."

"D'you hear me, sirrah!" cries the boy. "You're a poacher if the
truth were known. We want no lazy louts here, and if you're not
outside the gates instantly I vow I'll set the dogs on to you."

And with that he came up to me and gave me a shove with his
shoulder. He had courage, for he was smaller than I. 'Twas the
spirit that prompts a gentleman, however puny, to despise the
churl, however big.

His words I had borne patiently enough, but I could endure no more.
Wrenching myself away, I dealt him a buffet that stretched him flat
on the ground.

This scene had passed within a few paces of the gate, and I had
been so preoccupied that I had not heard the clatter of an
approaching horse, and in consequence was taken utterly aback when
a loud voice behind me cried, "What's this? What's this?" and
immediately afterwards the lash of a whip fell smartly on my back,
causing me to spring round in a heat of indignation. A gentleman
had just ridden in at the gate, and, taking in the situation at a
glance, had begun the chastisement which he had much reason to
suppose I deserved.

What with my hunger, the boy's insults, and the sting of the lash,
I was now roused to as high a pitch of fury as I had ever in my
life reached. I had taken a step towards the horse, to drag the
rider from his saddle, and he had raised the whip once more to
strike, when a voice from the direction of the house caused us both
to pause.

"Don't, uncle; oh, please don't!"

Involuntarily I turned, and saw a young girl flying down the path,
her long unloosed black hair streaming behind her. She came to us
with flushed cheeks, and breathless with running.

"It was all Roger's fault," she cried. "I saw it, heard it all. The
poor man is starving and wanted to work for food, and Roger was
rude to him."

Her uncle looked at her, and at me, and at the boy, who had risen
from the ground, wearing a sullen and crestfallen look.

"Is that the right of it, Roger?" asked the gentleman.

"He said so, sir," he replied, "but he looks such a villainous
tramp, and you know what lies they tell--why, look here!" He
stooped and picked something from the ground. "He said he was
hungry, and look at this!"

He held up my crown piece, which in the violence of my movements, I
suppose, had sprung out of my tattered garment. I felt my cheeks
flush hotly, and was st