h a wave of the hand, they rode on.

"I had better strap that staff beside your saddle, and under your
knee," Oswald said, when they had ridden a short distance. "You carry
it as if it were a spear, and I have seen already three or four people
smile, as we passed them."

Roger reluctantly allowed Oswald to fasten the staff beside him.

"One wants something in one's hands," he said. "On foot it does not
matter so much, but now I am on horseback again, I feel that I ought to
have a spear in hand, and a sword dangling at my side."

"You must remember that you are still a monk, Roger, although enlarged
for a season. Some day, perhaps, you will be able to gratify your
desires in that way. You had best moderate the speed of your horse, for
although he ambles along merrily, at present, he can never carry that
great carcase of yours, at this pace, through our journey."

"I should like one good gallop," Roger sighed, as he pulled at the
rein, and the horse proceeded at a pace better suited to the appearance
of its rider.

"A nice figure you would look, with your robes streaming behind you,"
Oswald laughed. "There would soon be a story going through the country,
of a mad monk.

"Now, we take this turning to the right, and here leave the main north
road, for we are bound, in the first place, to Roxburgh."

"I thought that it must be that, or Berwick, though I asked no
questions."

"We shall not travel like this beyond Roxburgh, but shall journey
forward on foot."

"I supposed that we should come to that, Master Oswald, for otherwise
you would not have told me to provide myself with a staff."

They journeyed pleasantly along. Whenever they approached any town or
large village, Oswald reined back his horse a little, so that its head
was on a level with Roger's stirrup. They slept that night at
Kirknewton, where they put up at a small hostelry. Oswald had intended
going to the monastery there, but Roger begged so earnestly that they
should put up elsewhere, that he yielded to him.

"I should have no end of questions asked, as to our journey across the
border, and its object," Roger said; "and it always goes against my
conscience to have to lie, unless upon pressing occasions."

"And, moreover," Oswald said, with a laugh, "you might be expected to
get up to join the community at prayers, at midnight; and they might
give you a monk's bed, instead of a more comfortable one in the guest
chambers."

"There may be somethi