ldiers in his house, and nothing to feed 'em with?'

Anne began reading, and continued at her task nearly ten minutes, when
she was interrupted by the appearance in the quadrangular slough without
of a large figure in the uniform of the yeomanry cavalry.

'What do you see out there?' said the farmer with a start, as she paused
and slowly blushed.

'A soldier--one of the yeomanry,' said Anne, not quite at her ease.

'Scrounch it all--'tis my nephew!' exclaimed the old man, his face
turning to a phosphoric pallor, and his body twitching with innumerable
alarms as he formed upon his face a gasping smile of joy, with which to
welcome the new-coming relative. 'Read on, prithee, Miss Garland.'

Before she had read far the visitor straddled over the door-hurdle into
the passage and entered the room.

'Well, nunc, how do you feel?' said the giant, shaking hands with the
farmer in the manner of one violently ringing a hand-bell. 'Glad to see
you.'

'Bad and weakish, Festus,' replied the other, his person responding
passively to the rapid vibrations imparted. 'O, be tender, please--a
little softer, there's a dear nephew! My arm is no more than a cobweb.'

'Ah, poor soul!'

'Yes, I am not much more than a skeleton, and can't bear rough usage.'

'Sorry to hear that; but I'll bear your affliction in mind. Why, you are
all in a tremble, Uncle Benjy!'

''Tis because I am so gratified,' said the old man. 'I always get all in
a tremble when I am taken by surprise by a beloved relation.'

'Ah, that's it!' said the yeoman, bringing his hand down on the back of
his uncle's chair with a loud smack, at which Uncle Benjy nervously
sprang three inches from his seat and dropped into it again. 'Ask your
pardon for frightening ye, uncle. 'Tis how we do in the army, and I
forgot your nerves. You have scarcely expected to see me, I dare say,
but here I am.'

'I am glad to see ye. You are not going to stay long, perhaps?'

'Quite the contrary. I am going to stay ever so long!'

'O I see! I am so glad, dear Festus. Ever so long, did ye say?'

'Yes, _ever_ so long,' said the young gentleman, sitting on the slope of
the bureau and stretching out his legs as props. 'I am going to make
this quite my own home whenever I am off duty, as long as we stay out.
And after that, when the campaign is over in the autumn, I shall come
here, and live with you like your own son, and help manage your land and
your farm, you know, and ma