“Ho!” I replied with much contempt, and swinging round the gun so that it fetched his hoop of candles down, all unkindled as they were:  “Ho! as if I had not attained to the handling of a gun yet!  My hands are cold coming over the moors, else would I go bail to point the mouth at you for an hour, sir, and no cause for uneasiness.”

But in spite of all assurances, he showed himself desirous only to see the last of my gun and me.  I dare say “villainous saltpetre,” as the great playwright calls it, was never so cheap before nor since.  For my shilling Master Pooke afforded me two great packages over-large to go into my pockets, as well as a mighty chunk of lead, which I bound upon Peggy’s withers.  And as if all this had not been enough, he presented me with a roll of comfits for my sister Annie, whose gentle face and pretty manners won the love of everybody.

There was still some daylight here and there as I rose the hill above Porlock, wondering whether my mother would be in a fright, or would not know it.  The two great packages of powder, slung behind my back, knocked so hard against one another that I feared they must either spill or blow up, and hurry me over Peggy’s ears from the woollen cloth I rode upon.  For father always liked a horse to have some wool upon his loins whenever he went far from home, and had to stand about, where one pleased, hot, and wet, and panting.  And father always said that saddles were meant for men full-grown and heavy, and losing their activity; and no boy or young man on our farm durst ever get into a saddle, because they all knew that the master would chuck them out pretty quickly.  As for me, I had tried it once, from a kind of curiosity; and I could not walk for two or three days, the leather galled my knees so.  But now, as Peggy bore me bravely, snorting every now and then into a cloud of air, for the night was growing frosty, presently the moon arose over the shoulder of a hill, and the pony and I were half glad to see her, and half afraid of the shadows she threw, and the images all around us.  I was ready at any moment to shoot at anybody, having great faith in my blunderbuss, but hoping not to prove it.  And as I passed the narrow place where the Doones had killed my father, such a fear broke out upon me that I leaned upon the neck of Peggy, and shut my eyes, and was cold all over.  However, there was not a soul to be seen, until we came home to the old farmyard, and there was my mother crying sadly, and Betty Muxworthy scolding.

“Come along, now,” I whispered to Annie, the moment supper was over; “and if you can hold your tongue, Annie, I will show you something.”