to taste the sweet fruits of kindness, he would not turn aside to pluck
the bitter fruits of revenge and passion. So he gave no heed to the
matter, only leaving the coast clear for White whenever he could, and
helping a little boy whom White had pushed aside to fill his basket.

Without any particular adventures, and with only the usual number of
scratches and falls, and only the common depth of dye in lips and
fingers, the boys sat down to rest beneath the shade of some fine trees,
which skirted a beautiful wood.

"I say," said John Parker, "let us turn in here, we shall find shade
enough, and I had rather sit on the grass and moss than on this bank.
Come along, we have only to climb the hedge."

"But that would be trespassing," said one conscientious boy, who went by
the name of Simon Pure, because he never would join in any sport he
thought wrong, and used to recall the master's prohibitions rather
oftener to his forgetful companions than they liked.

"Trespassing! a fig for trespassing," said John Parker, clearing away
all impediments, and bestriding the narrow ditch, planted a foot firmly
on the opposite bank.

"You may get something not so sweet as a fig for trespassing, John,
though," said his brother Fred, who came up at this moment.

"Man-traps and spring-guns are fictions my lad," said Philip Harcourt, a
boy of much the same turn as John, not easily persuaded any way; "Now
for it, over Parker; be quick, man," and over he jumped.