sorts of mischief, till one day when they were about ten they went off
bird's-nesting along the cliffs High Shale Point way, and only Jack come
back late at night to say his brother had gone over the cliff. Dick tore
off with some of the chaps from the shore. It were dark and windy, and
they all said it was no use, but Dick insisted upon going down the face
of the cliff on a rope to find him. And find him at last he did on a
ledge about a hundred feet down. He was so badly hurt that he thought
he'd broke his back, and he didn't dare move him till morning, but just
stayed there with him all night long. Oh, it was a dreadful business." A
large tear splashed unchecked on to Mrs. Rickett's apron. "An ill-fated
family, as you might say. They got 'em up in the morning o' course, but
poor little Robin was very bad. He was on his back for nearly a year
after, and then, when he began to get about again, them humps came and he
grew crooked. Mr. Fielding were away at the time, hunting somewhere in
the wilds of Africa, and when he came home he were shocked to see the
lad. He had the very best doctors in the land to see him, but they all
said there was nothing to be done. The spine had got twisted, or
something of that nature, and he'd begun to have queer giddy fits too as
made 'em say the brain were affected, which it really weren't, miss, for
he's as sane as you or me, only simple you know, just a bit simple. They
said, all of 'em, as how he'd never live to grow up. He'd get them
abscies at the base of the skull, and they'd reach his brain and he'd go
raving mad and die. And the squire--that's Mr. Fielding--was all for
putting him away there and then. But Dick, he'd nursed him all through,
and he wouldn't hear of it. 'The boy's mine,' he says, 'and I'm going to
look after him.' Mr. Fielding was very cross with him, but that didn't
make no difference. You see, Dick had got fond of him, and as for Robin,
why, he just worshipped Dick. So there it was left, and Dick gave up all
his prospects to keep the boy with him. He were reading for the law, you
see, but he gave it all up and turned schoolmaster, so as he could live
here and take care of young Robin."

"Turned schoolmaster!" Juliet repeated the words. "He's something of a
scholar then!"

"Oh, no," said Mrs. Rickett. "It's only the village school, miss. Mr.
Fielding got him the post. They're an unruly set of varmints here, but he
keeps order among 'em. He's quite clever, as you mi