core men; he would sweep me these rascals as the wind sweeps leaves.
Come, Jack, lean ye on my shoulder, ye poor shrew. Nay, y' are not tall
enough. What age are ye, for a wager?--twelve?"

"Nay, I am sixteen," said Matcham.

"Y' are poorly grown to height, then," answered Dick. "But take my hand.
We shall go softly, never fear. I owe you a life; I am a good repayer,
Jack, of good or evil."

They began to go forward up the slope.

"We must hit the road, early or late," continued Dick; "and then for a
fresh start. By the mass! but y' have a rickety hand, Jack. If I had a
hand like that I would think shame. I tell you," he went on, with a
sudden chuckle, "I swear by the mass I believe Hugh Ferryman took you
for a maid."

"Nay, never!" cried the other, colouring high.

"'A did, though, for a wager!" Dick exclaimed. "Small blame to him. Ye
look liker maid than man: and I tell you more--y' are a strange-looking
rogue for a boy; but for a hussy, Jack, ye would be right fair--ye
would. Ye would be well-favoured for a wench."

"Well," said Matcham, "ye know right well that I am none."

"Nay, I know that; I do but jest," said Dick. "Ye'll be a man before
your mother, Jack. What cheer, my bully? Ye shall strike shrewd strokes.
Now, which, I marvel, of you or me, shall be first knighted, Jack? for
knighted I shall be, or die for 't. 'Sir Richard Shelton, Knight': it
soundeth bravely. But 'Sir John Matcham' soundeth not amiss."

"Prithee, Dick, stop till I drink," said the other, pausing where a
little clear spring welled out of the slope into a gravelled basin no
bigger than a pocket. "And O, Dick, if I might come by anything to
eat!--my very heart aches with hunger."

"Why, fool, did ye not eat at Kettley?" asked Dick.

"I had made a vow--it was a sin I had been led into," stammered Matcham;
"but now, if it were but dry bread, I would eat it greedily."

"Sit ye, then, and eat," said Dick, "while that I scout a little forward
for the road." And he took a wallet from his girdle, wherein were bread
and pieces of dry bacon, and, while Matcham fell heartily to, struck
farther forth among the trees.

A little beyond there was a dip in the ground, where a streamlet soaked
among dead leaves; and beyond that, again, the trees were better grown
and stood wider, and oak and beech began to take the place of willow and
elm. The continued tossing and pouring of the wind among the leaves
sufficiently concealed the sounds of his f