really unbearable. Still she never pressed the point, and Abijah
appeared established as a permanent fixture in the Sankeys' household.
She it was who, when, after leaving the service, Captain Sankey
was looking round for a cheap and quiet residence, had recommended
Marsden.

"There is a grand air from the hills," she said, "which will be
just the thing for the children. There's good fishing in the stream
for yourself, captain, and you can't get a quieter and cheaper place
in all England. I ought to know, for I was born upon the moorland
but six miles away from it, and should have been there now if I
hadn't followed my man to the wars."

"Where are you going, Master Ned?" she asked as the boy, having
finished his dinner, ran to the high cupboard at the end of the
passage near the kitchen to get his fishing rod.

"I am going out fishing, Abijah."

"Not by yourself, I hope?"

"No; another fellow is going with me. We are going up into the
hills."

"Don't ye go too far, Master Ned. They say the croppers are drilling
on the moors, and it were bad for ye if you fell in with them."

"They wouldn't hurt me if I did."

"I don't suppose they would," the nurse said, "but there is never