“I am afraid so, too, John.  My father thinks that there will be civil war again.”

“Of course my grandfather is delighted,” John said quietly.  “He has been greatly disturbed in his mind, for some months, owing to the leanings of King James towards the Irish, which seem to point to his having to give up no small portion of the lands.”

“We thought so too, John; and although it is your father who would lose, and mine who would gain, I don’t think that even you can deny that it would be reasonable.  Your grandfather got the land from mine because he fought for Cromwell against the king, and Cromwell got the best of it.  Well, it seems only reasonable that, when the king again came to the throne, those who fought for him should get their own again.”

“It does seem so, Walter, I must own; and I am sure I should not have cared, for myself, if the land was given back again to your father tomorrow.  Then I suppose we should go back to England; and, as I know my grandfather has done well, and has laid by a good deal of money, they could take a farm there; and there would be more chance of their letting me enter upon some handicraft.  I would rather that, by a great deal, than farming.  All these books you have lent me, Walter, have shown me what great and noble deeds there are to be done in the world—­I don’t mean in fighting, you know, but in other ways.  And they make the life here, toiling on the farm from sunrise to sunset, with no object save that of laying by every year more money, seem terribly empty and worthless.

“By the way, my grandfather was, yesterday evening, rating my father because, instead of always keeping me hard at work, he allowed me once or twice a week to be away for hours wasting my time—­which means, though he didn’t know it, going about with you.  My father said stoutly that he did not think the time was altogether wasted, for that, in the last two years, I had made a notable advance in learning, and he was satisfied that I had benefited much by these intervals of recreation.  Thereupon my grandfather grumbled that I was too fond of reading, and that I was filling my mind with all sorts of nonsense, whereas true wisdom was to be found in one book only.

“My father said that was true of religious wisdom, but that, for the advancement of the world, it was needed that men should learn other things.  Of course, my grandfather had three or four texts ready at hand; but my father had him by saying:  ’You see, father, all the commands issued to the Jews are not strictly applicable to us—­for example, they were ordered not to use horses; and I do not remember that Cromwell felt that he was doing wrong, when he raised his ironsides.’  That was a poser, and so the matter dropped.”

Ten days later, when the boys met, John said: