THE LOVE-CHILD- 6G1 



parish clerk in fact, two thirds of the village formed a busy back- 

 ground to the picture. Patch was blaspheming as though he had 

 been Beelzebub : he could not overtake my granny, and foresaw 

 that his darling bloodhound mustinevitably fall a prey to the tusk of the 

 pig. Among the multitude I perceived Ezra ; he had a fowling piece 

 in his hand, which he contrived to charge as he ran. Leaping on a 

 dunghill, clothed with weeds in brilliant blossom, by the road side, 

 he knelt down and levelled at Sir Simon. I stood on the tips of my 

 great toes, and clenched my hands until I saw the result of his fire. 

 It took effect. 



The small shot, however, merely tickled the pig's thick hide ; he 

 received them as a posse of practical jokes, and uttering two or three 

 very gruff, but, to those who knew him, intensely jocose grunts, 

 gallopped on with increased speed, although, as I perceived, when 

 he passed, a few of the long bristles that clothed his nether haunch 

 were strung with liquid rubies. There was a patch of flat green 

 turf, at the other side of the road, 011 which, when the pig had 

 passed, I discovered Blue Peter sprawling in a perfect paroxysm of 

 laughter. 



But the scene, hbwever comic it might have been to him, was truly 

 dolorous to me. The last glimpse I obtained of Sir Simon, his enor- 

 mous ears were flapping up and down like an eagle's wings, trium- 

 phantly, as it seemed, bearing him onward to his prey. Granny, 

 mounted on her infuriate Ned, was hard by his haunch ; no aid was at 

 hand, and I foresaw that, if Sin had nine lives, they would in a 

 few moments be nine times annihilated. Sir Simon would rip up 

 his flanks the Ned would scrunch his ribs, and granny would com- 

 plete the massacre by tearing him limb from limb. The fatal con- 

 sequences of so audacious an exploit would not be felt so much by 

 the Ned, Sir Simon, or granny, as by me the first cause of the 

 calamity. Ezra, I was sure, had detected me behind the jessamine 

 as he passed, and I determined to decamp. 



After having made my wet and grimy toilet, I descended the stairs, 

 and Kitty having gone out to see the fun made my escape by. the 

 back-door, sneaked along the garden, and through the ditch of the 

 meadow, into cover. I descended the maiden oak traversed the 

 brook until the point where it reached Cuckold's Harem Field 

 emerged there and threw myself flat in a diagonal furrow. Many 

 hours elapsed, and when the west began to grow rosy, I ventured to 

 peep above the corn-blades. My eye fell upon the face of a human 

 being it was that of dear little Agnes. 



Her father being from home again, she had brought me succes- 

 sively, my breakfast, dinner, and supper. Supposing that I was 

 playing the truant, and would probably make my appearance before 

 night, she had kindly concealed my absence from the servants. How 

 I loved her ! The bacon, though cold, was capital. I did not eat I 

 devoured ! Her aspect gradually brightened up, and at length my 

 voracity so much amused her, that she cackled like a pullet. While 

 she was in this pleasant mood, having satisfied my appetite, and 

 drained a shooting horn of stout old cider, which she had brought 

 with the bacon, I recounted my recent exploits and perils, and from 



