matter now?"

The matter was that neighbour Gool was in sight, with three or four men.
A cheer was heard from them while they were still some way off. Oliver
ran out and cheered, waving his hat over his head. Ailwin cheered,
waving a towel out of the window. Mildred cheered from the roof, waving
her red flag; and George stood in the doorway, shouting and clapping his
little hands.

If the object was to catch the trespassers, all this cheering took place
a little too soon. Stephen and Roger were off, like their own
wild-ducks,--over the garden hedge, and out of sight. Neighbour Gool
declared that if they were once fairly among the reeds in the marsh, it
would be sheer waste of time to search for them; for they could dodge
and live in the water, in a way that honest people that lived on proper
hard ground could not follow. Here was the woman; and yonder was the
tent. Revenge might be taken that way, better than by ducking in the
ponds after the man and boy. Suppose they took the woman to prison, and
made a great fire in the carr, of the tent and everything in it!

Oliver did not see that it could make up to them for what they had lost,
to burn the tent; and he was pretty sure his father would not wish such
a thing to be done. His father would soon be home. As for the woman,
he thought she ought to go to prison, if Mr Gool would take her there.

"That I will," said Gool. "I will go through with the thing now I am in
it. I came off the minute I saw your red flag; and I might have been
here sooner, if I had not been so full of watching the mill-sails, that
I never looked off from them till my wife came to help to watch. Come,
you woman," said he to Nan Redfurn, "make no faces about going to
prison, for I am about to give you a ride there."

"She looks very ill," thought Oliver,--"not fit to be jolted on a
horse."

"You'll get no magistrate to send me to prison," said the woman. "The
justices are with the parliament, every one. You will only have to
bring me back, and be sorry you caught me, when you see what comes of
it."

"Cannot we take care of her here till father comes home?" said Oliver,
seeing that neighbour Gool looked perplexed, and as if he believed what
the woman said.

"No, no," said Mildred, whispering to her brother. "Don't let that
woman stay here."

"Neighbour Gool will take care of us till father comes home," said
Oliver: "and the woman looks so ill! We can lock her up here: and, y