the price of a pint of ale for Foxey's loife ef they could lay
their hands on him. He'd best not come up this way arter dark."

"He's not likely to do that," Ned said. "I am sure he is a coward or he
would have put the mill to work weeks ago."

Secure in the protection of the troops, and proud of the new machinery
which was at work in his mill, Mr. Mulready was now himself again. His
smile had returned. He carried himself jauntily, and talked lightly and
contemptuously of the threats of King Lud. Ned disliked him more in this
mood than in the state of depression and irritation which had preceded
it. The tones of hatred and contempt in which he spoke of the starving
workmen jarred upon him greatly, and it needed all his determination and
self command to keep him from expressing his feelings. Mr. Mulready was
quick in perceiving, from the expression of Ned's face, the annoyance
which his remarks caused him, and reverted to the subject all the more
frequently. With this exception the home life was more pleasant than it
had been before.

Mr. Mulready, in his satisfaction at the prospect of a new prosperity,
was far more tolerant with his wife, and her spirits naturally rose with
his. She had fully shared his fears as to the threats by the Luddites,
and now agreed cordially with his diatribes against the workpeople,
adopting all his opinions as her own.

Ned's acquaintance with Bill Swinton had long been a grievance to her,
and her constant complainings as to his love for low company had been
one of the afflictions to which Ned had long been accustomed. Now,
having her husband by her side, it was a subject to which she frequently
reverted.

"Why can't you leave me alone, mother?" Ned burst out one day when
Mr. Mulready had left the room. "Can't you leave me in quiet as to my
friends, when in two or three months I shall be going away? Bill Swinton
is going to enlist in the same regiment in which I am, so as to follow
me all over the world.

"Would any of the fine friends you would like me to make do that? I
like all the fellows at school well enough, but there is not one of them
would do a fiftieth part as much for me as Bill would. Even you, mother,
with all your prejudices; must allow that it will be a good thing for me
to have some one with me who will really care for me, who will nurse
me if I am sick or wounded, who would lay down his life for mine if
necessary. I tell you there isn't a finer fellow than Bill livi