basely crowed and conquered over by you and 'Tilda.'

'Noa!' replied John bluntly, 'thou bean't. Tak' thy oath o' thot. Think
betther o' us, Fanny. I tell 'ee both, that I'm glod the auld man has
been caught out at last--dom'd glod--but ye'll sooffer eneaf wi'out any
crowin' fra' me, and I be not the mun to crow, nor be Tilly the lass,
so I tell 'ee flat. More than thot, I tell 'ee noo, that if thou need'st
friends to help thee awa' from this place--dinnot turn up thy nose,
Fanny, thou may'st--thou'lt foind Tilly and I wi' a thout o' old times
aboot us, ready to lend thee a hond. And when I say thot, dinnot think
I be asheamed of waa't I've deane, for I say again, Hurrah! and dom the
schoolmeasther. There!'

His parting words concluded, John Browdie strode heavily out, remounted
his nag, put him once more into a smart canter, and, carolling lustily
forth some fragments of an old song, to which the horse's hoofs rang a
merry accompaniment, sped back to his pretty wife and to Nicholas.

For some days afterwards, the neighbouring country was overrun with
boys, who, the report went, had been secretly furnished by Mr and Mrs
Browdie, not only with a hearty meal of bread and meat, but with sundry
shillings and sixpences to help them on their way. To this rumour John
always returned a stout denial, which he accompanied, however, with a
lurking grin, that rendered the suspicious doubtful, and fully confirmed
all previous believers.

There were a few timid young children, who, miserable as they had been,
and many as were the tears they had shed in the wretched school, still
knew no other home, and had formed for it a sort of attachment, which
made them weep when the bolder spirits fled, and cling to it as a
refuge. Of these, some were found crying under hedges and in such
places, frightened at the solitude. One had a dead bird in a little
cage; he had wandered nearly twenty miles, and when his poor favourite
died, lost courage, and lay down beside him. Another was discovered in a
yard hard by the school, sleeping with a dog, who bit at those who came
to remove him, and licked the sleeping child's pale face.

They were taken back, and some other stragglers were recovered, but
by degrees they were claimed, or lost again; and, in course of time,
Dotheboys Hall and its last breaking-up began to be forgotten by the
neighbours, or to be only spoken of as among the things that had been.

CHAPTER 65

Conclusion

When he