t he
had read of pirates and highwaymen in the works of romance which he
devoured whenever he could get hold of them, went about fancying himself
a bold buccaneer and freebooter, firing at everything moving within as
well as out of range, along the solitary country lanes and hedgerows--
thereby frightening passers-by frequently with untimely shots close to
their ears, and making them believe their last hour had come.

It was in this way that he peppered old Stokes's sow, which was taking a
quiet walk abroad seeking a convenient wallowing place, when the squeals
of the unlucky beast were a nine days' wonder, albeit "it was all cry
and little wool," as the Irishman said when he shaved his pig, the
animal being not much hurt.

Still, old Stokes did not like it, and complained to the squire, who
remonstrated with the vicar, and the latter in his turn lectured Teddy--
the matter ending there as far as he was concerned, although the squeals
of the afflicted sow were treasured up and remembered against him in the
chronicles of Endleigh.

The place was so dull, that having nothing particular to keep him
occupied--for he had long since learned all the village schoolmaster
could teach him, and it was a mere farce his remaining any longer under
his tutelage--the wonder was, not that Teddy got into any mischief at
all, but that he did not fall into more; and Doctor Jolly was
continually speaking to his father about neglecting him in that way,
urging that he should be sent to some good boarding-school at a distance
to prepare him for the university, Mr Vernon intending that the boy
should follow in his own footsteps and go into the church, having the
same living after him that he had inherited from his father.

But the vicar would not hear of this.

"No," said he, "he shall stop here and be educated by me in the same way
as I was educated by my poor father before going to Oxford. He's a
bright intelligent boy--you don't think him an ignoramus, Jolly, eh?"

"Not by any means, by Jove," laughed the doctor. "He knows too much
already. What I think he wants is a little proper restraint and
control. Master Teddy has too much his own way."

"Ah! I can't be hard with him, Jolly," sighed the vicar. "Whenever I
try to speak to him with severity he looks me in the face with those
blue eyes of his, and I think of my poor wife, his mother. He's the
very image of her, Jolly!"

"Well, well," said the doctor, putting the subject aw