business is upon it."

Farmer Anerley hated chaff, as a good agriculturist should do. Moreover,
he was vexed by many little griefs to-day, and had not been out long
enough to work them off. He guessed pretty shrewdly that this sworded
man was "Moreducks"--as the leading wags of Flamborough were gradually
calling him--and the sight of a sword upon his farm (unless of an
officer bound to it) was already some disquietude to an English farmer's
heart. That was a trifle; for fools would be fools, and might think it a
grand thing to go about with tools they were never born to the handling
of; but a fellow who was come to take up Robin Lyth's case, and strive
to get him out of his abominable crime, had better go back to the
rogue's highway, instead of coming down the private road to Anerley.

"Upon my word I do believe," cried Mordacks, with a sprightly joy, "that
I have the pleasure of meeting at last the well-known Captain Anerley!
My dear sir, I can not help commending your prudence in guarding the
entrance to your manor; but not in this employment of a bill-hook. From
all that I hear, it is a Paradise indeed. What a haven in such weather
as the present! Now, Captain Anerley, I entreat you to consider whether
it is wise to take the thorn so from the rose. If I had so sweet a
place, I would plant brambles, briers, blackthorn, furze, crataegus,
every kind of spinous growth, inside my gates, and never let anybody lop
them. Captain, you are too hospitable."

Farmer Anerley gazed with wonder at this man, who could talk so fast for
the first time of seeing a body. Then feeling as if his hospitality were
challenged, and desiring more leisure for reflection, "You better come
down the lane, sir," he said.

"Am I to understand that you invite me to your house, or only to the
gate where the dogs come out? Excuse me: I always am a most plain-spoken
man."

"Our dogs never bite nobody but rogues."

"In that case, Captain Anerley, I may trust their moral estimate. I knew
a farmer once who was a thorough thief in hay; a man who farmed his own
land, and trimmed his own hedges; a thoroughly respectable and solid
agriculturist. But his trusses of hay were always six pounds short, and
if ever anybody brought a sample truss to steelyard, he had got a little
dog, just seven pounds weight, who slipped into the core of it, being
just a good hay-color. He always delivered his hay in the twilight, and
when it swung the beam, he used to say, 'C