rown; and he thought of the poor fallen family, and forgot
his own dire wrestle with the wolf at his door.

He stayed lingering in the lane till the figure of Randal was out of
sight, and then returned slowly. Young Leslie continued to walk on at a
quick pace. With all his intellectual culture, and his restless
aspirations, his breast afforded him no thought so generous, no
sentiment so poetic, as those with which the unlettered clown crept
slouchingly homeward.

As Randal gained a point where several lanes met on a broad piece of
waste land, he began to feel tired, and his step slackened. Just then a
gig emerged from one of these by-roads, and took the same direction as
the pedestrian. The road was rough and hilly, and the driver proceeded
at a foot's-pace; so that the gig and the pedestrian went pretty well
abreast.

"You seem tired, sir," said the driver, a stout young farmer of the
higher class of tenants, and he looked down compassionately on the boy's
pale countenance and weary stride. "Perhaps we are going the same way,
and I can give you a lift?"

It was Randal's habitual policy to make use of every advantage proffered
to him, and he accepted the proposal frankly enough to please the honest
farmer.

"A nice day, sir," said the latter, as Randal sat by his side. "Have you
come far?"

"From Rood Hall."

"Oh, you be young Squire Leslie," said the farmer, more respectfully,
and lifting his hat.

"Yes, my name is Leslie. You know Rood, then?"

"I was brought up on your father's land, sir. You may have heard of
Farmer Bruce?"

_Randal._--"I remember, when I was a little boy, a Mr. Bruce, who
rented, I believe, the best part of our land, and who used to bring us
cakes when he called to see my father. He is a relation of yours?"

_Farmer Bruce._--"He was my uncle. He is dead now, poor man."

_Randal._--"Dead! I am grieved to hear it. He was very kind to us
children. But it is long since he left my father's farm."

_Farmer Bruce_, apologetically.--"I am sure he was very sorry to go.
But, you see, he had an unexpected legacy----"

_Randal._--"And retired from business?"

_Farmer Bruce._--"No. But, having capital, he could afford to pay a good
rent for a real good farm."

_Randal_, bitterly.--"All capital seems to fly from the lands of Rood.
And whose farm did he take?"

_Farmer Bruce._--"He took Hawleigh, under Squire Hazeldean. I rent it
now. We've laid out a power o' money on it. But I don't compl