"These four came all afront and mainly made at me. I made no more
ado, but took their seven points on my target--thus--"

SHAKESPEARE.


The journey to Alton was eventless. It was slow, for the day was a
broiling one, and the young foresters missed their oaks and beeches,
as they toiled over the chalk downs that rose and sank in endless
succession; though they would hardly have slackened their pace if it
had not been for poor old Spring, who was sorely distressed by the
heat and the want of water on the downs. Every now and then he lay
down, panting distressfully, with his tongue hanging out, and his
young masters always waited for him, often themselves not sorry to
rest in the fragment of shade from a solitary thorn or juniper.

The track was plain enough, and there were hamlets at long
intervals. Flocks of sheep fed on the short grass, but there was no
approaching the shepherds, as they and their dogs regarded Spring as
an enemy, to be received with clamour, stones, and teeth, in spite
of the dejected looks which might have acquitted him of evil
intentions.

The travellers reached Alton in the cool of the evening, and were
kindly received by a monk, who had charge of a grange just outside
the little town, near one of the springs of the River Wey.