better manners. And, by the way, sir, when you bow, keep your back
straight. Mr. Montresor has a pretty way of it. Observe him, Hugh. But he
is a fool, and so are the rest; and as for Bessy Ferguson, I should like to
lay a whip over her back like that," and she hit my horse sharply, poor
thing, so that I lost a stirrup and came near to falling.

When the beast got quiet I asked why these nice people, who had such
pleasant ways, were all fools.

"I will tell you," she said. "There are many and constant causes of trouble
between us and the king. When one ends, like this Stamp Act, another is
hatched. It was the best of us who left England, and we are trained to rely
on ourselves, and have no need of England. You will live to see dark days,
Hugh--just what, God alone can tell; but you will live to see them, and
your life will have to answer some questions. This may seem strange to you,
my lad, but it will come."

What would come I knew not. She said no more, but rode homeward at speed,
as she liked best to do.

Thus time went by, until I was full sixteen, having been at the college a
year later than was usual. I had few battles to fight, and contrived to
keep these to myself, or to get patched up at my Aunt Wynne's, who
delighted to hear of these conflicts, and always gave me a shilling to heal
my wounds. My dear, fair-haired Jack, Aunt Gainer thought a girl-boy, and
fit only to sell goods, or, at best, to become a preacher. His father she
used and disliked.

Meanwhile we had been through Horace and Cicero,--and Ovid for our moral
improvement, I suppose,--with Virgil and Sallust, and at last Caesar, whom