s to be robbed.'

'I think we should miss them very much,' I answered after consideration;
for the possibility of having no Doones had never yet occurred to me,
and we all were so thoroughly used to them, and allowed for it in
our year's reckoning; 'I am sure we should miss them very sadly; and
something worse would come of it.'

'Thou art the staunchest of all staunch Tories,' cried Stickles,
laughing, as he shook my hand; 'thou believest in the divine right of
robbers, who are good enough to steal thy own fat sheep. I am a jolly
Tory, John, but thou art ten times jollier: oh! the grief in thy face at
the thought of being robbed no longer!'

He laughed in a very unseemly manner; while I descried nothing to laugh
about. For we always like to see our way; and a sudden change upsets us.
And unless it were in the loss of the farm, or the death of the King, or
of Betty Muxworthy, there was nothing that could so unsettle our minds
as the loss of the Doones of Bagworthy.

And beside all this, I was thinking, of course, and thinking more than
all the rest, about the troubles that might ensue to my own beloved
Lorna. If an attack of Glen Doone were made by savage soldiers and
rude train-bands, what might happen, or what might not, to my delicate,
innocent darling? Therefore, when Jeremy Stickles again placed the
matter before me, commending my strength and courage and skill (to
flatter me of the highest), and finished by saying that I would be worth
at least four common men to him, I cut him short as follows:--

'Master Stickles, once for all, I will have naught to do with it. The
reason why is no odds of thine, nor in any way disloyal. Only in thy
plans remember that I will not strike a blow, neither give any counsel,
neither guard any prisoners.'

'Not strike a blow,' cried Jeremy, 'against thy father's murderers,
John!'

'Not a single blow, Jeremy; unless I knew the man who did it, and he
gloried in his sin. It was a foul and dastard deed, yet not done in cold
blood; neither in cold blood will I take God's task of avenging it.'

'Very well, John,' answered Master Stickles, 'I know thine obstinacy.
When thy mind is made up, to argue with thee is pelting a rock with
peppercorns. But thou hast some other reason, lad, unless I am much
mistaken, over and above thy merciful nature and Christian forgiveness.
Anyhow, come and see it, John. There will be good sport, I reckon;
especially when we thrust our claws into the nest