aymate as a boy, was as much astonished as I was--weren't you,
Humphrey?"

"Well, sir," said the young man, "when I see you th' other morning, I
couldn't believe my eyes like, that the gentleman who'd pummelled that
fellow was the one I'd come up to London to meet. I saw you, too, sir,"
he said, touching his hat to Pratt.

"Yes, my man," said Pratt, "and felt my toe. I'm sorry to find you did,
for you've blown up one of the most beautiful propositions I ever made
in my life."

"Well, now then," said Trevor, "I'll see about matters with you, Lloyd;
but, by the way, you had better be Humphrey, on account of your father."

"Yes, sir; Humphrey, please, sir," said the young man.

"Well, now then, as we go on," said Trevor, "if it don't bore you,
Pratt, we'll have a talk about farm matters."

"Won't bore me," said Pratt; "I'm going in for the country gentleman
while I stay."

"Well, then, Humphrey, how are the crops!"

"Well, sir," said Humphrey. "Ah, Juno! what are you sniffing after
there?" This to the young dog, which seemed to have been born with a
mission to push its head up rabbit burrows too small for the passage.
"Well, sir, begging your pardon, but that dog's took more looking after
than e'er a one I ever had."

"All right, go on," said Trevor, following the man across a broad,
rock-sided ditch, with a little brook at the bottom.

"Well, sir," said the keeper, "the corn is--"

"Here, I say, hold hard a minute! This isn't Pall Mall, Trevor,"
shouted Pratt. "How the deuce am I to get over that place?"

"Jump, man," cried Trevor, laughing and looking back. "That's nothing
to some of our ditches."

Pratt looked at the ditch, then down at his little legs, and then blew
out his cheeks.

"Risk it," he said, laconically; and, stepping back a few yards, he took
a run, jumped, came short, and had to scramble up the bank, a little
disarranged, but smiling and triumphant. "All right," he said, "go on."

"Corn is, on the whole, a fair crop, sir," said Humphrey.

"And barley?"

"Plenty of that too, sir. But I've a deal of trouble with trespassers,
sir."

"How's that?" said Trevor, looking round at the bright, rugged hill and
dale, with trees all aglow with the touch of autumn's hand.

"You see, sir, it's the new people," said the keeper.

"What new people?"

"The old gentleman as bought Tolcarne, sir."

"Well, what of him?" said Trevor, rather anxiously.

"Well, sir, he's a magistrate and a S