with your position as my servant. But the man I
should select to take with us must be a strong active fellow."

"That's me, Sir John. I haven't been neither sick nor sorry all the
five years I've been with you, 'cept that time when I cut my hand with
the broken decanter."

"An outdoor servant," continued Sir John, rather sternly, passing over
his man's interruption--"a man with something of the gamekeeper about
him--a man who can tramp through woods, carry rifles and guns, and clean
them; use a fishing-net or line; row, chop wood and make a fire; set up
a tent or a hut of boughs; cook, and very likely skin birds and beasts.
In short, make himself generally useful."

"And valet you and Mr Jack, Sir John," interposed the man.

"Certainly not, Edward; we shall leave all those civilised luxuries
behind. You see I want a thorough outdoor servant, not such a man as
you."

"Beg pardon, Sir John," cried the man promptly; "but it's me you do
want, I'm just the sort you said."

"You?" said Sir John, smiling rather contemptuously.

"Yes, Sir John. I was meant for an outdoor man, only one can't get to
be what one likes, and so I had to take to indoor."

Sir John shook his head.

"You are a very excellent servant, Edward," he said, "and I shall have
great pleasure in giving you a very strong recommendation for
cleanliness and thorough attention to your duties. I cannot recall ever
having to find fault with you."

"Never did, Sir John, I will say that; and do you think I'm going to
leave such a master as you and Mr Jack here, though he does chuck big
books at me!" he said with a grin. "Not me."

"I thank you for all this, Edward, but--"

"Don't, don't say no, Sir John--in a hurry," cried the man imploringly.
"You only know what I can do from what you've seen; and you know that
having a willing heart and 'and 's half-way to doing anything."

"Yes," said his master with a smile; "I know too that you're a very
handy person."

"Hope so, Sir John; but I'm obliged to stick up for myself, as there's
no one here to do it for me. There ain't nothing you want done that I
can't do. Father was a gamekeeper and bailiff and woodman, and when I
was a boy I used to help him, cutting hop-poles with a bill-hook,
felling trees with an axe, and I've helped him to make faggots, hurdles,
and stacks, and tents, and thatched. I've helped him many a time use
the drag and the cast-net, fishing. I can set night lines, and I had a
gu