d
for yourself."

"But it can't be good land, squire. There be twenty foot right down o'
black peat, and nowt under that but clay."

"I tell you that when the water's out of it, James Tallington, all that
will be good valuable land. Now, then, will you join the adventurers?"

"Look here, squire, we've known each other twenty year, and I ask thee
as a man, will it be all right?"

"And I tell you, man, that I'm putting all I've got into it. If it were
not right, I wouldn't ask you to join."

"Nay, that you wouldn't, squire," said Farmer Tallington, taking a good
draught from his ale. "I'm saaving a few pounds for that young dog, and
I believe in you. I'll be two hundred, and that means--"

"Twice as much land," said the squire, holding out his hand. "Spoken
like a man, Master Tallington; and if the draining fails, which it can't
do, I'll pay you two hundred myself."

"Nay, thou weant," said Farmer Tallington stoutly. "Nay, squire, I'll
tak' my risk of it, and if it turns out bad, Tom will have to tak' his
chance like his father before him. I had no two hundred or five hundred
pounds to start me."

"Nor I," said the squire.

"May we talk now, father?" said Dick.

"Yes, if you like."

"Then," cried Dick, "I wish you wouldn't do it. Why, it'll spoil all
the fishing and the 'coy, and we shall get no ice for our pattens, and
there'll be no water for the punt, and no wild swans or geese or duck,
and no peat to cut or reeds to slash. Oh, I say, father, don't drain
the fen."

"Why, you ignorant young cub," cried the squire, "do you suppose you are
always to be running over the ice in pattens, and fishing and shooting?"

"Well, no, not always," said Dick, "but--"

"But--get out with your buts, sir. Won't it be better to have solid
land about us instead of marsh, and beef and mutton instead of birds,
and wheat instead of fish?"

"No, I don't think so, father."

"Well, then, sir, I do," said the squire. "I suppose you wouldn't like
the ague driven away?"

"I don't mind, father," said Dick laughing. "I never get it."

"No, but others do, and pains in their joints, and rheumatics. I say,
Tallington, when they get as old as we are, eh?"

"Yes, they'll find out the difference, squire; but do you know, that's
how all the fen-men'll talk."

"Let 'em," said the squire; "we've got leave from the king's magistrates
to do it; and as for the fen-men, because they want to live like frogs
all their lives,