tumn. How be you
fearin'? I aint seen 'e this longful time."

"Well, thank you; and as busy as you in my way. I'm going to write a
book about the Dartmoor stones."

"'S truth! Be you? Who'll read it?"

"Don't know yet. And, after all, I have found out little that sharper
eyes haven't discovered already. Still, it fills my time. And it is that
I'm here about."

"You can go down awver my land to the hut-circles an' welcome whenever
you mind to."

"Sure of it, and thank you; but it's another thing just now--your
brother-in-law to be. I think perhaps, if he has leisure, he might be
useful to me. A very clever fellow, Hicks."

But Will was in no humour to hear Clement praised just then, or suggest
schemes for his advancement.

"He'm a weak sapling of a man, if you ax me. Allus grumblin', an' soft
wi' it--as I knaw--none better," said Blanchard, watching Bonus struggle
with the rabbit netting.

"He's out of his element, I think--a student--a bookish man, like
myself."

"As like you as chalk's like cheese--no more. His temper, tu! A bull in
spring's a fule to him. I'm weary of him an' his cleverness."

"You see, if I may venture to say so, Chris--"

"I knaw all 'bout that. 'Tis like your gudeness to try an' put a li'l
money in his pocket wi'out stepping on his corns. They 'm tokened. Young
people 's so muddle-headed. Bees indeed! Nice things to keep a wife an'
bring up a fam'ly on! An' he do nothin' but write rhymes, an' tear 'em
up again, an' cuss his luck, wi'out tryin' to mend it. I thought
something of un wance, when I was no more 'n a bwoy, but as I get up in
years I see the emptiness of un."

"He would grow happy and sweeter-hearted if he could marry your sister."

"Not him! Of course, if it's got to be, it will be. I ban't gwaine to
see Chris graw into an auld maid. An' come bimebye, when I've saved a
few hunderd, I shall set 'em up myself. But she's makin' a big mistake,
an', to a friend, I doan't mind tellin' 'e 'tis so."

"I hope you're wrong. They'll be happy together. They have great love
each for the other. But, of course, that's nothing to do with me. I
merely want Hicks to undertake some clerical work for me, as a matter of
business, and I thought you might tell me the best way to tackle him
without hurting his feelings. He's a proud man, I fancy."

"Ess; an' pride's a purty fulish coat for poverty, ban't it? I've gived
that man as gude advice as ever I gived any man; but what's
well-thought-