rst, went out to ask what
was doing there.

A young man was sitting upon the table, accounting too little of our
house, yet showing no great readiness to boast, only to let us know
who he was. He had a fine head of curly hair, and spoke with a firm
conviction that there was much inside it. "Father, you have possessed
small opportunity of seeing how we do things now. Mother is not to be
blamed for thinking that we are in front of what used to be. What do we
care how the country lies? We have heared all this stuff up at Oare. If
there are bogs, we shall timber them. If there are rocks, we shall blow
them up. If there are caves, we shall fire down them. The moment we get
our guns into position----"

"Hush, Bob, hush! Here is your master's daughter. Not the interlopers
you put up with; but your real master, on whose property you were born.
Is that the position for your guns?"

Being thus rebuked by his father, who was a very faithful-minded man,
Robert Pring shuffled his long boots down, and made me a low salutation.
But, having paid little attention to the things other people were
full of, I left the young man to convince his parents, and he soon was
successful with his mother.

Two, or it may have been three days after this, a great noise arose in
the morning. I was dusting my father's books, which lay open just as he
had left them. There was "Barker's Delight" and "Isaac Walton," and the
"Secrets of Angling by J. D." and some notes of his own about making of
flies; also fish hooks made of Spanish steel, and long hairs pulled from
the tail of a gray horse, with spindles and bits of quill for plaiting
them. So proud and so pleased had he been with these trifles, after the
clamour and clash of life, that tears came into my eyes once more, as I
thought of his tranquil and amiable ways.

"'Tis a wrong thing altogether to my mind," cried Deborah Pring, running
in to me. "They Doones was established afore we come, and why not let
them bide upon their own land? They treated poor master amiss, beyond
denial; and never will I forgive them for it. All the same, he was
catching what belonged to them; meaning for the best no doubt, because
he was so righteous. And having such courage he killed one, or perhaps
two; though I never could have thought so much of that old knife. But
ever since that, they have been good, Miss Sillie, never even coming
anigh us; and I don't believe half of the tales about them."

All this was new to