ovely self, peeping softly down the glen, and fearing to encourage me;
yet there would be nobody else, and what an insult to her! Dwelling upon
this, and seeing no chance of escape from it, I could not find one wink
of sleep; though Jeremy Stickles (who slept close by) snored loud enough
to spare me some. For I felt myself to be, as it were, in a place of
some importance; in a situation of trust, I may say; and bound not to
depart from it. For who could tell what the King might have to say to
me about the Doones--and I felt that they were at the bottom of this
strange appearance--or what His Majesty might think, if after receiving
a message from him (trusty under so many seals) I were to violate
his faith in me as a churchwarden's son, and falsely spread his words
abroad?

Perhaps I was not wise in building such a wall of scruples.
Nevertheless, all that was there, and weighed upon me heavily. And at
last I made up my mind to this, that even Lorna must not know the reason
of my going, neither anything about it; but that she might know I was
gone a long way from home, and perhaps be sorry for it. Now how was I to
let her know even that much of the matter, without breaking compact?

Puzzling on this, I fell asleep, after the proper time to get up; nor
was I to be seen at breakfast time; and mother (being quite strange to
that) was very uneasy about it. But Master Stickles assured her that the
King's writ often had that effect, and the symptom was a good one.

"Now, Master Stickles, when must we start?" I asked him, as he lounged
in the yard gazing at our turkey poults picking and running in the sun
to the tune of their father's gobble. "Your horse was greatly foundered,
sir, and is hardly fit for the road to-day; and Smiler was sledding
yesterday all up the higher Cleve; and none of the rest can carry me."

"In a few more years," replied the King's officer, contemplating me with
much satisfaction; "'twill be a cruelty to any horse to put thee on his
back, John."

Master Stickles, by this time, was quite familiar with us, calling
me "Jack," and Eliza "Lizzie," and what I liked the least of all, our
pretty Annie "Nancy."

"That will be as God pleases, sir," I answered him, rather sharply; "and
the horse that suffers will not be thine. But I wish to know when we
must start upon our long travel to London town. I perceive that the
matter is of great despatch and urgency."

"To be sure, so it is, my son. But I see a year