isn't in the
world for any thing but to be killed: other beasts are of some use
while they're alive." Nat nodded complacently. After a while he said,
"Perhaps that's the reason a pig squeals worse than any other beast
when they kill it."

His merry questions, remarks, and odd speeches gained for Ivo
throughout the village the reputation of a "smart, quick-witted boy."
Nobody surmised to whom this early activity of his mind was to be
ascribed. The schoolmaster was displeased with him because he never
went home from school quietly, as the rules prescribed, but always
screamed and whooped like an Indian. Poor children! For hours they are
compressed into themselves: when released at last, how can they be
blamed for shaking themselves and greeting the free air to which they
return? That is the reason that eleven o'clock in a village often seems
to be the hour for the Wild Huntsman to make his round.

No one doubted that Ivo would be a good parson in time, he was so
orderly and well-behaved. Valentine once boasted at the Eagle that his
Ivo would go far ahead of George's Peter and John's Constantine.

We shall see.

3.
CHILD'S LOVE.

Next door to Valentine lived Mike Shackerle, a poor man, whose sole
wealth was in his children, the youngest of whom was called Emmerence:
the carpenter's wife was her godmother, and Emmerence spent almost all
her time at. Valentine's house, ate and drank there, and only slept at
home. She was of Ivo's age exactly, and the two children were
inseparable. Although his ungallant schoolfellows called him
"girl-runner," he stuck to Emmerence. They had a partnership in a lot
of fruit they had buried in the hay-loft. Over this treasure they would
often sit with quiet joy. Ivo showed himself as a man in being able to
count up to a hundred. Emmerence listened devoutly and spoke the
numbers after him. The damaged and the odd pieces were consumed in
equal portions. Disputes were not wanting; when the partnership-goods
were divided at once. But the separation never lasted longer than a
day; for, if they did not "go joints," how could they talk to each
other of their fortune?

Great changes took place, however. Ivo received from Nat the present of
a whip, and Emmerence learned to knit. In towns children are presented
with drums or with toy-shops, to play soldier and trader until life
begins in earnest: in the village they begin to pla