558 THE LOVE-CHILD. 



" Unhook your arms, Kitty," cried Ezra : " unhook, I say, or I 

 shall let the boy fall squash upon the stones ! my knees do shake 

 unhook I say, Kit d n thee." 



Down we fell, Ezra, Kit, arid I, rny dirty duds and his spruce 

 fowling piece, in one sprawling group upon the hard flag floor. Ezra 

 was either stunned or had fainted, and his wife speedily becoming 

 conscious of the calamity, roused her faculties, and, forgetting every 

 thing else, affectionately bestirred herself to recover him. I had 

 already dropped from his grasp, and stood stark-naked upon the 

 hearth. Willing to make myself useful, I plucked a green twig from 

 the fire, and placed it in such a position that the pungent smoke 

 floated freely into his nostrils. This restored him to sensation, and 

 in a few minutes, as the old women say, " he came round." 



His wife Kitty, a very pale care-worn looking woman, apparently 

 about twenty-five years of age, after having brought down from the 

 room above and tied her warm flannel petticoat about my neck, 

 my arms being allowed to protrude through the pocket holes, with 

 astonishing celerity produced " a pot of tea." While this was being 

 discussed, Ezra, who was now " himself again/' carefully picked the 

 shots from my leg, and after his wife had washed my face and hands, 

 and most rigidly applied the small-tooth comb to my head, to which 

 she paid the compliment of saying that no young squire's could be 

 cleaner, we went to bed together : they had no children, and I was 

 delightfully cuddled between them. 



When Ezra awoke me, my head was couched on his wife's bosom ; 

 her arms were wound about me ; and she murmured, hugging me 

 up to her heart as she spoke, ts Not yet, Ezra ! Truly, not yet !" 



Ezra, however, was not to be coaxed : we got up, and I was arrayed 

 in the filthy bernired costume of the scarecrow. This, as Ezra said, 

 was necessary, in order that the Squire might see the affair in its pro- 

 per light; but he made no objection to my face being soaped, washed, 

 and polished until it shone like a ripe pippin. After a hearty but 

 hurried breakfast, I limped off by the side of Ezra towards Squire 

 Patch's mansion. 



He carried me part of the way, while he was secure from observa- 

 tion, but from the moment that we entered the house, Ezra seemed to 

 have lost all regard for me : the jeers of the servants had their full 

 influence, and I was treated by him as a little outlandish wild beast 

 that he had caught in the woods. After having loitered for some 

 time in the hall, we were ushered, by a spruce footman, who, with a 

 mock heroic air, offered me snuff, into a magnificent library, where 

 Squire Patch and his visitors were breakfasting. The peal of laugh- 

 ter with which I was greeted frightened me ; I had never been in 

 such polished society before ; and, turning to Ezra, I hid my face 

 beneath the skirt of his shooting-jacket. I was, however, speedily 

 torn from my retreat, and fully developed for the amusement of the 

 party. Indignant at such treatment, 1 had already meditated a bite 

 at the silk breeches of a plump gentleman who sat at the lower end 

 of the table, when, without announcement, Farmer Belroy strode into 

 the room, and calmly took me under his protection, being, as he said, 

 an appurtenance to his property ; I was his scarecrow, and who the 

 devil had dared to fire at me on his land ? 



