Indeed, for the matter of that--but enough is said. I shall be with you
anon.'

'Your clothes are dry and are ready for you,' I remarked.

'Enough! enough!' he answered. 'I have no quarrel with the suit which
your father has lent me. It may be that I have been used to better, but
they will serve my turn. The camp is not the court.'

It was evident to me that my father's suit was infinitely better, both
in texture and material, than that which our visitor had brought with
him. As he had withdrawn his head, however, entirely beneath the
bedclothes, there was nothing more to be said, so I descended to the
lower room, where I found toy father busily engaged fastening a new
buckle to his sword-belt while my mother and the maid were preparing the
morning meal.

'Come into the yard with me, Micah,' quoth my father; 'I would have a
word with you.' The workmen had not yet come to their work, so we
strolled out into the sweet morning air, and seated ourselves on the low
stone bankment on which the skins are dressed.

'I have been out here this morning trying my hand at the broadsword
exercise, 'said he; 'I find that I am as quick as ever on a thrust, but
my cuts are sadly stiff. I might be of use at a pinch, but, alas! I am
not the same swordsman who led the left troop of the finest horse
regiment that ever followed a kettledrum. The Lord hath given, and the
Lord hath taken away! Yet, if I am old and worn, there is the fruit of
my loins to stand in my place and to wield the same sword in the same
cause. You shall go in my place, Micah.'