her's land to make
a garden of herbs; and if they got it, a nice garden of herbs it would
be! Why, Mark Eden, as I'm a scholar and a gentleman, my income is
fifty pounds a year. My cottage is my own, and I'm a happier man than
either of your fathers. Look about you, boy--here, at the great God's
handiwork; wherever your eyes rest, you see beauty. Look at this
silvery flashing river, the lovely great trees, the beautiful cliffs,
and up yonder in the distance at the soft blues of the mountains,
melting into the bluer skies. Did you ever see anything more glorious
than this dale?"

"Never," cried the lad enthusiastically.

"Good, boy! That came from the heart. That heart's young and soft, and
true, as I know. Don't let it get crusted over with the hard shell of a
feud. Life's too great and grand to be wasted over a miserable quarrel,
and in efforts to make others wretched. And it's so idiotic, Mark, for
you can't hurt other people without hurting yourself more. Look here,
next time you, spring boy, meet the other spring boy, act at once; don't
wait till you are summer men, or autumn men. When you get to be a
winter man as I am, it will be too late. Begin now, while it is early
with you. Hold out your hand and shake his, and become fast friends.
Teach your fathers what they ought to have done when they were young.
Come, promise me that."

"I can't, sir," said the boy, frowning. "And if I could, Ralph Darley
would laugh in my face."

"Bah!" ejaculated the old man, stamping the butt of his rod in the
water. "There, I've done with you both. You are a pair of young
ravens, sons of the old ravens, who have their nests up on the stony
cliffs, and you'll both grow up to be as bad and bitter as your fathers,
and take to punching out the young lambs' eyes with your beaks. I've
done with you both."

"No, you haven't, Master Rayburn," said the lad softly. "I was coming
to see you this evening, to ask you to go with me for a day, hunting for
minerals and those stones you showed me in the old cavern, where the hot
spring is."

"Done with you, quite," said the old man fiercely, as he began to bait
his hook with another worm.

"And I say, Master Rayburn, I want to come and read with you."

"An untoward generation," said the old man. "There, be off! I'm
wasting time, and I want my trout, and _thymallus_, my grayling, for man
must eat, and it's very nice to eat trout and grayling, boy. Be off!
I've quite don