he's as sane as you or me, only simple you know, just a bit simple. They
said, all of 'em, as how he'd never live to grow up. He'd get them
abscies at the base of the skull, and they'd reach his brain and he'd go
raving mad and die. And the squire--that's Mr. Fielding--was all for
putting him away there and then. But Dick, he'd nursed him all through,
and he wouldn't hear of it. 'The boy's mine,' he says, 'and I'm going to
look after him.' Mr. Fielding was very cross with him, but that didn't
make no difference. You see, Dick had got fond of him, and as for Robin,
why, he just worshipped Dick. So there it was left, and Dick gave up all
his prospects to keep the boy with him. He were reading for the law, you
see, but he gave it all up and turned schoolmaster, so as he could live
here and take care of young Robin."

"Turned schoolmaster!" Juliet repeated the words. "He's something of a
scholar then!"

"Oh, no," said Mrs. Rickett. "It's only the village school, miss. Mr.
Fielding got him the post. They're an unruly set of varmints here, but he
keeps order among 'em. He's quite clever, as you might say, but no, he
ain't a scholard. He goes in for games, you know, football and the like,
tries to teach 'em to play like gentlemen, which he never will, for
they're a low lot, them shore people, and that dirty! Well, he makes 'em
bathe every day in the summer whether they likes it or whether they
don't. Oh, he does his best to civilize 'em, and all them fisher chaps
thinks a deal of him too. They've got a club in the village what Mr.
Fielding built for 'em, and he goes along there and gives 'em musical
evenings and jollies 'em generally. They'll do anything for him, bless
you. But he tells 'em off pretty straight sometimes. They'll take it from
him, you see, because they respects him."