need--those who venerate the land, owning its
wood, and stream, and earth, and all that they produce? or those who
love their country, boasting not a foot of ground in all its wide
domain!

Kit knew nothing about such questions, but he knew that his old home
was a very poor place, and that his new one was very unlike it, and yet
he was constantly looking back with grateful satisfaction and
affectionate anxiety, and often indited square-folded letters to his
mother, enclosing a shilling or eighteenpence or such other small
remittance, which Mr Abel's liberality enabled him to make. Sometimes
being in the neighbourhood, he had leisure to call upon her, and then
great was the joy and pride of Kit's mother, and extremely noisy the
satisfaction of little Jacob and the baby, and cordial the
congratulations of the whole court, who listened with admiring ears to
the accounts of Abel Cottage, and could never be told too much of its
wonders and magnificence.

Although Kit was in the very highest favour with the old lady and
gentleman, and Mr Abel, and Barbara, it is certain that no member of
the family evinced such a remarkable partiality for him as the
self-willed pony, who, from being the most obstinate and opinionated
pony on the face of the earth, was, in his hands, the meekest and most
tractable of animals. It is true that in exact proportion as he became
manageable by Kit he became utterly ungovernable by anybody else (as if
he had determined to keep him in the family at all risks and hazards),
and that, even under the guidance of his favourite, he would sometimes
perform a great variety of strange freaks and capers, to the extreme
discomposure of the old lady's nerves; but as Kit always represented
that this was only his fun, or a way he had of showing his attachment
to his employers, Mrs Garland gradually suffered herself to be
persuaded into the belief, in which she at last became so strongly
confirmed, that if, in one of these ebullitions, he had overturned the
chaise, she would have been quite satisfied that he did it with the
very best intentions.

Besides becoming in a short time a perfect marvel in all stable
matters, Kit soon made himself a very tolerable gardener, a handy
fellow within doors, and an indispensable attendant on Mr Abel, who
every day gave him some new proof of his confidence and approbation.
Mr Witherden the notary, too, regarded him with a friendly eye; and
even Mr Chuckster would sometimes