For three year we worked at Oakshotts after that, as man and wife; and
then I took my pension and went into Little Silver to live. Because Sir
Walter got it into his head to marry again before it was too late, and his
new lady never liked me so well as he did. He'd applauded me far too much
to her, and 'tis always a fatal fact in human nature, that if you hear a
fellow-creature praised up to the sky, your mind takes an instant set
against 'em.
No. XV
THE NIGHT-HAWK
I
There's no doubt that a man's opinions change with his business, because
the point of view's just everything. What be good to you is what you want
to happen and think ought to happen; and if it don't happen, then you'm a
bit fretful about it, and reckon there's a screw loose somewhere in the
order of things. For instance, I be a gamekeeper to-day, and I take a view
of fish and birds according; but once on a time I was a fly-by-night young
rip of a poacher, and had a very different idea about feathers and fins.
"A fish be no more the bank-owner's fish than the water in the river be
his water!" That's what I used to say. Because a salmon--he's a sea-fish,
and free as air and his own master. Same with a bird. How do I know
whether 'twas Squire Tom, or Squire Dick, or Squire Harry as reared a
pheasant I happen to knock over on a moony night? Birds will fly, as
Nature meant 'em; and, again, it may be just a wild bird, as never came
out of no boughten egg at all, but belonged to the country, like his
father and his grandfather afore him.
Pages:
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330