Mother Dolly's eyes grew round. 'Mind thee, Hob!' she said; 'I ken
thy bark is worse than thy bite, but I would have thee to know that
if aught befall the maid between this and Greystone, I shall hold
thee--and so will my Lady--guilty of a foul deed.'

'No fouler than was done on the stripling's father,' muttered the
shepherd. 'Get thee in, wife! Who knows what folly those two may be
after while thou art away? Mind thee, if the maid gets an inkling of
who the boy is, it will be the worse for her.'

'Oh!' murmured the goodwife, 'I moaned once that our Piers there
should be deaf and well-nigh dumb, but I thank God for it now! No
fear of perilous word going out through him, or I durst not have kept
my poor sister's son!'

Mother Doll trusted that her husband would never have the heart to
leave the pretty dark-haired girl in the snow, but she was relieved
to find Hal marking down on the wide flat hearth-stone, with a bit of
charcoal, all the stars he had observed. 'Hob calls that the Plough--
those seven!' he said; 'I call it Charles's Wain!'

'Methinks I have seen that!' she said, 'winter and summer both.'

'Ay, he is a meuseful husbandman, that Charles! And see here! This
middle mare of the team has a little foal running beside her'--he
made a small spot beside the mark that stood for the central star of
what we call the Bear's Tail.

'I never saw that!'