d the man, with a reproachful shake of his
head. "I didn't mean money, Master Roy, but good words, and a sort o'
disposition to make the towers what they should be again. He's a fine
soldier is your father, and I hear as the king puts a lot o' trust in
him; but it always seems to me as he thinks more about farming when he's
down here than he does about keeping up the old place as a good cavalier
should."

"Don't you talk a lot of nonsense," said Roy, hotly; "if my father likes
to live here as country gentlemen do, and enjoy sport and gardening and
farming, who has a better right to, I should like to know?"

"Oh, nobody, sir, nobody," said the man, scouring away at the rusted
steel.

"And besides, times are altered. When this castle was built, gentlemen
used to have to protect themselves, and kept their retainers to fight
for them. Now there's a regular army, and the king does all that."

That patch of rust must have been a little lighter on, for the man
uttered a low grunt of satisfaction.

"It would be absurd to make the towers just as they used to be, and shut
out the light and cover the narrow slits with iron bars."

"Maybe, Master Roy; but Sir Granby might have the moat cleared of mud,
and kept quite full."

"What! I just hope it won't be touched. Why, that would mean draining
it, and then what would become of my carp and tench?"

"Ketch 'em and put 'em in tubs, sir, and put some little uns back."

"Yes, and then it would take years for them to grow, and all the
beautiful white and yellow water-lilies would be destroyed."

"Yes; but see what a lot of fine, fat eels we should get, sir. There's
some thumpers there. I caught a four-pounder on a night-line last
week."

"Ah, you did, did you?" cried the lad; "then don't you do it again
without asking for leave."

"All right, sir, I won't; but you don't grudge an old servant like me
one eel?"

"Of course I don't, Ben," said the lad, importantly; "but the moat is
mine. Father gave it to me as my own special fishing-place before he
went away, and I don't allow any one to fish there without my leave."

"I'll remember, sir," said the man, beginning to whistle softly.

"I don't grudge you a _few_ eels, Ben, and you shall have plenty; but
next time you want to fish, you ask."

"Yes, sir, I will."

"And what you say is all nonsense: the place is beautiful as it is.
Why, I believe if you could do as you liked, you'd turn my mother's
pleasaunce and t