"I think it is better to clean the old name; and I'll do it, if I can." There was a steady light of purpose in the eye of the youth, as he replied. The parson said nothing for a time and they walked on in silence and then---- "Perhaps you are right, lad. You are very much like your father. Those were his words and sentiments. I trust you may be more successful, though." Parson Trant, while giving vent to these brief, epigrammatic sentences, was thinking of another matter,--the depredations on the estate of the Manor,--and had just decided to broach that unhappy subject. They were standing near the village stocks and the parson, placing his arm again in that of Ande, began the subject in an indirect manner. CHAPTER III THE RUNAWAY "And as the chariot rolled along the plain, Light from the ground he leaped, and seized the rein; Thus hung in air, he still retain'd his hold, The coursers frighted, and their course controlled." --_Dryden's Virgil._ "Ande, my lad, if--" His remarks were very unceremoniously cut short by a shout from the lad. "Look out, Mr. Trant! A runaway!" and before he had finished speaking, he caught the old parson by the shoulders and gave him a shove to one side of the road. Now the action of the youth was so quick and with such vigour, that the parson had no alternative but to go in a very undignified manner. His shovel-shaped hat went into the hedge, and with coat-tails flying like the pennants of a man-of-war, the parson was following, but tripped on some obstacle and plunged very quickly and involuntarily into a bunch of stinging nettles and thistles by the road-side. Nor was the action too quick, for down the road, galloping and plunging as if mad, her eyes flashing and nostrils distended with terror, came the squire's black mare, Queeny. A brief glance had sufficed for the youth's quick eyes. The bit had broken in the mare's mouth. The chaise in the rear rocked from side to side in a most frightful manner, but the plucky driver, Mistress Alice, with resolute will, though pale with fear, still held the lines, seeking in vain to restrain the maddened creature. There was a quick thud, thud, thud; the creaking of wrenched axle; a rolling cloud of dust; and through it all in the rear a strained face, beautiful, yet fear-stricken, with wide, dark eyes and a tumbling mass of curly hair as black as the clouds of a moonless night. [Illustration: "There was a vision of a flying, athletic, youthful form--clinging with the grip of a vice--"]