-j^ MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



shared his doubts. *' Things has to be done at the right 

 time, whether it's buyin' and sellin', or plowin' and reapin'." 



" No doubt of it, Grimes, but there's old Lady Flora 

 who's got as much land on her hands as most folk, they 

 tell me her farm takes some beating ; but then she's got 

 Mangles. I don't say he's any better than you, mind you ; 

 but if things goes on well with one female, what's the odds 

 with another ? " 



** There I agree with you, Summers," said the stud-groom, 

 " farmin' and bosses are quite different things. When you 

 gets bosses fit and in condition it does you no credit unless 

 they are ridden, and folk see them where they should be. 

 Now, if your bosses are messed about and never show up in 

 front, it's Hibbert's fault ; they're too fat or too soft or too 

 something. It won't suit me, I'm off; bosses and hounds 

 ain't the same as farmin'." 



Summers surveyed the ceiling in silence for quite half a 

 minute before he said : — 



" Hosses and hounds ain't the same either. You can sell 

 off the hosses and buy a new lot, if you've the money, and it 

 won't take a conjurer to get them in condition if a man 

 knows something about it, but hounds — they take making 

 to be what mine are ; you can't leave them to any one. 

 There's the puppies to go out to walk, and the puppies to 

 come in ; there's the draft to go, and some one must know 

 something about it. It's eddication they'll want, and who's 

 to eddicate them without a schoolmaster ? " 



There was a knock at the door, to which Summers replied 

 '* Come in," and then the three men rose to their feet, for a 

 tall lady entered, dressed in black. 



After the first knock-down blow Miss Badsworth, under 

 the able advice of her brother, had risen to the occasion, and 

 her usual energy had returned. Charles Badsworth, before 

 returning to Cornwall to see to his own affairs, had been 

 over the farm, the stables and kennels, and made his report. 



** Keep the bailiff; do what you like about Hibbert, his 

 horses look well, but he is easily replaced, and don't part 



