CHAPTER I.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXIII, Issue 1164, 23 October 1896, Page 7

CHAPTER I.

It was nearly —but not quite—a hundred 3'ears ago ; just -within this present century, in fact. Be pleased to picture a very old-fashioned village — old-fashioned even at that remote period. Shariford was its name, and 'it lay completely out of the world and some three miles inland from the coast —the, south coast i of: England ; the latitude and longiHdeiof it to be had on personal application to the existing church-wardens, but not otherwise. On a particular* s^iirimbr evening a goodly young man rode slowly down the village street, and everyone as a matter of course, came out to have a look at him and his brown cob. He was dressed pretty smartly, and his hcrse's skin was so well groomed that it shoue like satin, and altogether he was an agreeable object of contemplation. ♦ Young Master Fielding goin' acourtin' again,' said the villagers with sly wags of the head ; ' goin' a-courtin' up to rec'ory.' But that was all nonsense. What he came to the rrctory so often for was to learn all about bees and beekeeping from old Mr Burlingham, the rector, —yes—from that charming Miss Lucy, In3 daughter, who knew quite as much as her father. Arid young Mr Field ing was a very slow pupil indeed, and had to come over very, very often. Why, he had been there only the day before yesterday ! He rode leisurely up to the rectory garden gate, and almost before he could get off Tomniy, his cob, out came Miss L«icy, a lovely golden-haired vision, flying down the pith and lookking more charming than ever, but evidently in a great state of mind about something. ' Oh, Mr Fielding,' she cried, ' I am so glp.d you've come ! Sorneth'ng has happened, and I'm in such a state of distress about it!' It was so gieat a pleasure to the young man to be welcomed like that, and to have both hands held out to him (as Miss Lucy had actually done in her excitemeut) that it was as much as he could do to control his voice and ask what the matter was. ' Oh, Mr Fielding, 1 hardly know how to tell you —and father knows nothing about it ; and you know he is so deaf, he would never understand. It was this afternoon, and I had gone down into the village with some gravy soup for old Sally, who lives opposite the green, you know, and just as I had left Sally's and was coming back by Dimbie's, the baker's, I saw a man —a poor man looking like a tramp —after a glance round to see that no one was spying (and he never could have noticed me at all), dash into the shop and come out again with a loaf, which he. tried to hi.ie under ois coat. He set oS runnii.g up the street, and I, before I knew what I w^s doing, cried out, ' Stop thief !' as loud as I could. They must hve heard me at the forge, for Bull, the constable, was there, and he ran out vrith Hiejsjs, the blacksmith, and —oh ! Mr Fielding ! —they knocked the poor man down, and when I got up to them, there he lay on the-road all In the dust, and his head was bleeding and the loaf was rolled away in the) gutter. * And when I wanted them to let. the man go, seeing what a poor halfstarved wretch he was, Bull said he couldn't do it, and that it was e hanging matter too. And the poor man begged ever so hard, and said he was nearly dead with hunger, but Bull wouldn't listen to him ; he dragged him up and said he must come along to the lock-np until the morning, when he would be taken off to Dullington to be charged before a justice. And the worst of it is, I am the witness—the chief one, I mean —and if the poor man is hanged, it will be all through me ! Think how dreadful! I bound up the poor fellow's head with my handkerchief, and they took him off to the lock-up, and —oh 1 dear, dear !' cried Miss Lucy, now fairly breaking down and Bobbing, ' whatever am I to do 1 My dear Mr Fielding, do help me !' The young man comforted her; and said he would do what he could ; but all the time he was at his wite' end tp think what he could do, for he knew enough of the law (as in force in those glorious old times, for the return of which we all sigh and groan continuallyt) to be fully aware that the thief was as good as hanged already unless he could be got clean out of the clutches of Bull the constable. However, he promised vaguely, and Miss Lucy was sure he could do anything he chose and she should be so grateful to him; she wuld never sh#w her gr&tibufa enough. But Mr Folding thought that last might be possible, At which speech ] Miss Lucy blushed, and the young man j departed feeling that h<? iw%% 4q or 4i<>, | and, forgetting all &\>ont< the bft<p#, strange to say only wandered whether tfaat charming young lady would Ihttm to him, it he could do her the &trYi&> aUt &$M> He set Utn wtts to work upon H us be rode off down th« rwtory Jan*\