a certain love of the home scenes, tempered by youth's impatience
for something new. The nightingales sang, the thrushes flew out
before them, the wild duck and moorhen glanced on the pools. Here
and there they came on the furrows left by the snout of the wild
swine, and in the open tracts rose the graceful heads of the deer,
but of inhabitants or travellers they scarce saw any, save when they
halted at the little hamlet of Minestead, where a small alehouse was
kept by one Will Purkiss, who claimed descent from the charcoal-
burner who had carried William Rufus's corpse to burial at
Winchester--the one fact in history known to all New Foresters,
though perhaps Ambrose and John were the only persons beyond the
walls of Beaulieu who did not suppose the affair to have taken place
in the last generation.

A draught of ale and a short rest were welcome as the heat of the
day came on, making the old dog plod wearily on with his tongue out,
so that Stephen began to consider whether he should indeed have to
be his bearer--a serious matter, for the creature at full length
measured nearly as much as he did. They met hardly any one, and
they and Spring were alike too well known and trained, for
difficulties to arise as to leading a dog through the Forest.
Should they ever come to the term of the Forest? It was not easy to
tell when they were really beyond it, for the ground was much of the
same kind. Only the smooth, treeless hills, where they had always
been told Winchester lay, seemed more defined; and they saw no more
deer, but here and there were inclosures where wheat and barley were
growing, and black timbered farm-houses began to show themselves at
intervals. Herd boys, as rough and unkempt as their charges, could
be seen looking after little tawny cows, black-faced sheep, or
spotted pigs, with curs which barked fiercely at poor weary Spring,