A Final Reckoning | Page 4

wanted a younger man, more abreast of the times than
White is; but I don't like turning him adrift altogether. He has been here
upwards of thirty years. What am I to do with him?"
Mrs. Ellison could make no suggestion; but she, too, disliked the
thought of anyone in the village being turned adrift upon the world.
"The very thing!" the squire exclaimed, suddenly "We will make him
clerk. Old Peters has long been past his work. The old man must be
seventy-five, if he's a day, and his voice quavers so that it makes the
boys laugh. We will pension him off. He can have his cottage rent free,
and three or four shillings a week. I don't suppose it will be for many
years. As for White, he cannot be much above sixty. He will fill the
place very well.
"I am sure the vicar will agree, for he has been speaking to me, about
Peters being past his work, for the last five years. What do you say, my
dear?"
"I think that will do very well, William," Mrs. Ellison replied, "and will
get over the difficulty altogether."
"So you see, wife, for once that boy of Widow Whitney's was not to

blame. I told you you took those stories on trust against him too readily.
The boy's a bit of a pickle, no doubt; and I very near gave him a
thrashing, myself, a fortnight since, for on going up to the seven-acre
field, I found him riding bare backed on that young pony I intended for
Kate."
"You don't say so, William!" Mrs. Ellison exclaimed, greatly shocked.
"I never heard of such an impudent thing. I really wonder you didn't
thrash him."
"Well, perhaps I should have done so, my dear; but the fact is, I caught
sight of him some time before he saw me, and he was really sitting her
so well that I could not find it in my heart to call out. He was really
doing me a service. The pony had never been ridden, and was as wild
as a wild goat. Thomas is too old, in fact, to break it in, and I should
have had to get someone to do it, and pay him two or three pounds for
the job.
"It was not the first time the boy had been on her back, I could see. The
pony was not quite broken and, just as I came on the scene, was trying
its best to get rid of him; but it couldn't do it, and I could see, by the
way he rode her about afterwards, that he had got her completely in
hand; and a very pretty-going little thing she will turn out."
"But what did you say to him, William? I am sure I should never stop
to think whether he was breaking in the pony, or not, if I saw him
riding it about."
"I daresay not, my dear," the squire said, laughing; "but then you see,
you have never been a boy; and I have, and can make allowances.
Many a pony and horse have I broken in, in my time; and have got on
the back of more than one, without my father knowing anything about
it."
"Yes, but they were your father's horses, William," Mrs. Ellison
persisted. "That makes all the difference."
"I don't suppose it would have made much difference to me," the squire

laughed, "at that time. I was too fond of horse flesh, even from a boy,
to be particular whose horse it was I got across. However, of course,
after waiting till he had done, I gave the young scamp a blowing up."
"Not much of a blowing up, I am sure," Mrs. Ellison said; "and as
likely as not, a shilling at the end of it."
"Well, Mary, I must own," the squire said pleasantly, "that a shilling
did find its way out of my pocket into his."
"It's too bad of you, William," Mrs. Ellison said indignantly. "Here is
this boy, who is notoriously a scapegrace, has the impertinence to ride
your horse, and you encourage him in his misdeeds by giving him a
shilling."
"Well, my dear, don't you see, I saved two pounds nineteen by the
transaction.
"Besides," he added more seriously, "I think the boy has been maligned.
I don't fancy he's a bad lad at all. A little mischief and so on, but none
the worse for that. Besides, you know, I knew his father; and have sat
many a time on horseback chatting to him, at the door of his mill; and
drank more than one glass of good ale, which his wife has brought out
to me. I am not altogether easy in my conscience about them. If there
had