Rob said no more till after the lesson was over, then he said slowly, “It’s rather strange, that what you were a tellin’ me, but I don’t see it quite.  P’raps another day you’ll tell me again.”

“If you make haste and read, I’ll give you a Bible, and then you’ll be able to read about it yourself.  Of course you ought to be serving God just as much as anybody else, and you’d better begin at once!”

Saying which Roy scrambled down from his high perch and raced across the garden to the stables where he had settled to meet Dudley; whilst Rob descended more slowly, muttering to himself, “’Tis a good thing not to be afraid of God like Master Roy, but I doubt if I should ever get to serve Him!”

VII

A WALNUT STOKY

“I say, Dudley, do come out for a ride!  Aunt Judy is with granny, and she says the house must be quiet, and I hate being in a quiet house.  Come on!  What are you doing?”

Roy finished his sentence by springing on Dudley’s back, and as he was in a crouching attitude in a corner of the old nursery, he brought him flat to the ground by his unexpected attack.  For a minute or two both boys rolled on the ground in each other’s clutches, and feet and hands were having a busy time of it.  Then Dudley sprang to his feet.

“I like you coming in to tell me to be quiet, and then beginning a fight at once!  Do shut up!  You’ve quite spoilt my last letter!”

“Well, what are you doing?”

“I’m carving my name in the corner here, just below my father’s.”

Roy looked with curiosity at Dudley’s handiwork.

“Yes, your M is very crooked; but I wouldn’t choose to write my name on the wainscoting.  It’s too low down.  I like to be at the top of everything.  Now if you carved it on the ceiling that would be something like!”

“You’re always wanting to do impossibilities!”

“I should like to have a try at them,” rejoined Roy, quickly.  “I hate everything that is easy.  Now come on, do! and we’ll have a good gallop over the down!”

Half an hour later and the boys were tearing through the village on their ponies, and were soon out on an open expanse of heather and grass.

Roy was in the midst of an eloquent harangue on all he was going to do when he was grown up, when Dudley suddenly came to a standstill.

“Something is the matter with Hazel.  I believe she’s going lame.  Oh, I see, one of her shoes is loose!  Now what are we to do!”

He sprang off his pony as he spoke, and looked perplexed at this calamity.

“Lead her on gently,” was Roy’s ready advice.  “We aren’t far off from C——­, and I know there’s a blacksmith there.”

Dudley grumbled a little at having his ride spoiled in this fashion; but it was not long before they reached the neighboring village, and the smith’s forge was soon found.

Then, whilst Hazel was being attended to, Roy suggested that they should go and see an old lady, a great friend of their aunt’s, who lived just outside the village.