ve in the Stuarts, and I
always shall."

"This is more treasonable than what you said before."

"Well, it's the truth."

"Perhaps it is. I say, you're a head taller than I am."

"Yes, I know that."

"But you don't seem to know that if you talk like that you'll soon be
the same height."

"What, you think my principles will keep me standing still, while yours
make you grow tall?"

"No. I think if it gets known you'll grow short all in a moment."

"They'll chop my head off? Pooh! I'm not afraid. You won't blab."

"But you've no business to be here."

"Oh yes, I have. Plenty think as I do. You will one of these days."

"Never! What, go against the King!"

"This German usurper you mean. Oh, you'll come over to our side."

"What, with my father in the King's Guards, and my mother one of the
Princess's ladies of the bed-chamber! Nice thing for a man to have a
son who turned traitor."

"What a red-hot Whig you are, Frank! You're too young and too fresh to
London and the court to understand these things. He's King because a
few Whigs brought him over here. If you were to go about London, you'd
find every one nearly on the other side."

"I don't believe it."

"Come for a few walks with me, and I'll take you where you can hear
people talking about it."

"I don't want to hear people talk treason, and I can't get away."

"Oh yes, you can; I'll manage it. Don't you want to go out?"

"Yes; but not to hear people talk as you say. They must be only the
scum who say such things."

"Better be the scum which rises than the dregs which sink to the bottom.
Come, I know you'd like a run."

"I'll go with you in the evening, and try and catch some of the fish in
that lake."

"What, the King's carp! Ha--ha! You want old Bigwig to give you five
pounds."

"Old Bigwig--who's he?"

"You know; the King."

"Sh!"

"Pooh! no one can hear."

"But what do you mean about the five pounds?"

"Didn't you hear? They say he wrote to some one in Hanover saying that
he could not understand the English, for when he came to the Palace they
told him it was his, and when he looked out of the window he saw a park
with a long canal in it, and they told him that was his too. Then next
day the ranger sent him a big brace of carp out of it, and when they
told him he was to behave like a prince and give the messenger five
guineas, he was astonished. Oh, he isn't a bit like a king."

"I say, do be quiet. I don't w