, she bain't angry wi' you. Do thou go
across to her and tell her how main sorry I be, and that I know I am a
selfish brute and thought o' myself and not o' her, and say that if she
likes I will cut her a stick any size she likes and let her welt me just
as long as she likes wi'out saying a word."

Harry was rather loath to go on such an errand, but being imperatively
ordered by Jack he, as usual, did as his comrade wished. When he
approached Nelly Hardy he saw that the girl was crying bitterly, her
sobs shaking her whole body.

"I be coom wi' a message," he began in a tone of apprehension, for he
regarded Nelly as resembling a wild cat in her dangerous and unexpected
attacks.

The girl leapt to her feet and turned her flushed tear-stained cheeks
and eyes, flashing with anger through the tears, upon him.

"What dost want, Harry Shepherd? Get thee gone, or I'll tear the eyes
from thy head."

"I doan't coom o' my own accord," Harry said steadily, though he
recoiled a little before her fierce outburst. "I came on the part o'
Jack Simpson, and I've got to gi' you his message even if you do fly at
me. I've got to tell you that he be main sorry, and that he feels he
were a selfish brute in a thinking o' his own feelings instead o' thine.
He says he be so sorry that if 'ee like he'll cut a stick o' any size
you choose and ull let you welt him as long as you like wi'out saying a
word. And when Jack says a thing he means it, so if you wants to wop
him, come on."

To Harry's intense surprise the girl's mood changed. She dropped on the
ground again, and again began to cry.

After standing still for some time and seeing no abatement in her sobs,
or any sign of her carrying out the invitation of which he had been the
bearer, Jack's emissary returned to him.

"I guv her your message, Jack, and she said nowt, but there she be a
crying still."

"Perhaps she didn't believe you," Jack said; "I'd best go myself."

First, with great deliberation, Jack chose a hazel stick from the hedge
and tried it critically. When fully assured that it was at once lissom
and tough, and admirably adapted for his purpose, he told Harry to go on
home.

"Maybe," Jack said, "she mayn't loike to use it and you a looking on.
Doan't 'ee say a word to no un. If she likes to boast as she ha' welted
me she ha' a roight to do so, but doan't you say nowt."

Jack walked slowly across the field till he was close to the figure on
the ground. Then he quiet