en to those places?" asked Jack with surprise,
glancing at the rough-looking drover, "or do you only speak from having
heard of them?"

"Oh, I have attended the fairs held there myself!" answered Master
Pearson. "I have been to many others too, such as that of
Frankfort-on-the-Maine; and I tell you, my lad, the great corn-field
near Casterton shows a more wonderful sight than any of them. You are
lucky in having to make your first business trip there, instead of
northward."

"I do not care greatly which way I ride," answered Jack cheerily; "all
the world is new to me, and I want to see as much of it as I can."

"You will see a specimen of a good deal of what I call the world in a
few days," said Master Pearson. "We have had such splendid weather,
that the corn has been got off the fields, otherwise it would be a bad
look out for the farmers. The fair-keepers have a right, you must know,
to trample it under foot, and to lay out their streets, and set up their
booths on the ground, whether it is standing or not. However, you'll
know all about the fair when you have been there. You'll have extensive
dealings in one way or another for your employer, I doubt not."

"Yes, probably," observed Jack. "We shall have a good sum to lay out, I
know; for we have done very well with beasts. They say that the drovers
from the north have had great losses from the attacks of Ben Nevis and
his gang, who have been bolder than ever this year. It is a pity a
fellow of that sort cannot be caught and hung. I have no fancy for
allowing rogues to disturb honest men in their proper trade. For my
part, I should like to organise a bold band of fellows and hunt down the
robber. I have learned one thing--that black is black, and white is
white; and though, maybe, he is a bold fellow, that is no reason he is
not a rogue, and richly deserves hanging."

Master Pearson laughed as Jack spoke.

"You must catch your hare before you cook him; remember that, lad," he
observed.

"There is the difficulty," answered Jack. "They say that no one has
caught sight of him except at a great distance; and I am told his horse
flies like a meteor, and is as light as the wind. He can follow his
master up-stairs as easily as a cat, and up a tree for that matter, I
verily believe, and will leap down precipices high enough to break the
bones of any ordinary man or horse. Thus there is scarcely a chance of
coming up with him, although the country has be