soundeth bravely. But ' Sir John Matcham' soundeth not
amiss."

"Prithee, Dick, stop till I drink," said the other, pausing
where a little clear spring welled out of the slope into a
gravelled basin no bigger than a pocket. "And O, Dick, if
I might come by anything to eat ! -- my very heart aches
with hunger."

"Why, fool, did ye not eat at Kettley?" asked Dick.
"I had made a vow -- it was a sin I had been led into,"
stammered Matcham; "but now, if it were but dry bread,
I would eat it greedily."

"Sit ye, then, and eat," said Dick, "while that I scout
a little forward for the road." And he took a wallet from
his girdle, wherein were bread and pieces of dry bacon,
and, while Matcham fell heartily to, struck farther forth
among the trees.

A little beyond there was a dip in the ground, where a
streamlet soaked among dead leaves; and beyond that,
again, the trees were better grown and stood wider, and
oak and beech began to take the place of willow and elm.
The continued tossing and pouring of the wind among
the leaves sufficiently concealed the sounds of his foot-
steps on the mast; it was for the ear what a moonless
night is to the eye; but for all that Dick went cautiously,
slipping from one big trunk to another, and looking sharp-
ly about him as he went. Suddenly a doe passed like a
shadow through the underwood in front of him, and he
paused, disgusted at the chance. This part of the wood

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