But I stand for Church and King, and so shall the boys,
as sure as my name's Ben Marston.'




Chapter 2



Father was one of those people that gets shut of a deal of trouble
in this world by always sticking to one thing. If he said he'd do
this or that he always did it and nothing else. As for turning him,
a wild bull half-way down a range was a likelier try-on.
So nobody ever bothered him after he'd once opened his mouth.
They knew it was so much lost labour. I sometimes thought
Aileen was a bit like him in her way of sticking to things.
But then she was always right, you see.

So that clinched it. Mother gave in like a wise woman, as she was.
The clergyman from Bargo came one day and christened me and Jim --
made one job of it. But mother took Aileen herself in the spring cart
all the way to the township and had her christened in the chapel,
in the middle of the service all right and regular, by Father Roche.

There's good and bad of every sort, and I've met plenty that were no chop
of all churches; but if Father Roche, or Father anybody else,
had any hand in making mother and Aileen half as good as they were,
I'd turn to-morrow, if I ever got out again. I don't suppose
it was the religion that made much difference in our case,