ixpence, in
case you want a bit of food."

"I've got ninepence of my own," said John, feeling in his pocket; and
though most of his pay went to his mother for his washing and board, he
always kept a little back every week.

"There, then, you'd best be off, my dear lad. Keep out of sight, you
know, as long as you are in the village."

Johnnie bobbed his head; and his aunt threw her arms round his neck, and
kissed him, as she had not done since he was in petticoats; and then she
murmured, "God bless you, my darling lad, and take care of you."

Johnnie did not feel the prayer needless, for in spite of his eighteen
year, he had all a country lad's dislike of being out alone in the dark;
and to this was added the sense that it was a time when evil-minded
people might be about, who would certainly assault and stop him if they
guessed his errand. To meet his father would make it certain that he
would be seized, abused, beaten, and turned back, with the reproach of
being an unnatural son--turning against his father. Of this, however,
there was little chance, as Dan Hewlett was pretty certain to be either
in the "Fox and Hounds" or in the "Blue Lion" collecting partisans. And
Johnnie, getting out through the back door, then by the untidy garden,
and over the wall of the empty pig-stye, cut out into a stubble field.
He was not afraid of his mother missing him till bedtime, as it was the
wont of the youths--especially of those who had comfortless homes--to
wander about in parties in the evening, bat-fowling sometimes, but often
in an aimless sort of way, doing little bits of mischief, and seeking
diversion, which they seldom found, unless there was any solitary figure
to be shouted at and startled. His father was not likely to come in
till after he was turned out of the public-house; so John strode, all
unseen, across the field, and through the gateway into the next. He did
think of the possibilities of bringing arrest and prosecution upon his
father; but this did not greatly trouble him, for at this early period
no regular measures of defence had been taken against the rioters; and
as they went about disguised, and did not, as a rule, threaten life,
they generally escaped scot-free.

And the idea of a rude mob terrifying Mrs Carbonel to death was
terrible to him. Even since the day when she had stood before him in
the Sunday School at the wash-house at Greenhow, she had been his notion
of all that was lovely and angel