When _Mother_ and _Wat_ were both gone forth, Aunt _Joyce_ saith,--"I cannot verily tell how it is that folk should have a fantasy that 'tis a shame to be 'feared of doing ill, and no shame at all to be 'feared of being laughed at. Why, one day when I were at home, there was little _Jack Bracher_ a-stealing apples in mine orchard: and _Hewitt_ (that is Aunt _Joyce's_ chief gardener) caught him and brought him to me. _Jack_, he sobbed and thrust his knuckles into his eyes, and said it were all the other lads. `But what did the other lads to thee?' quoth I. `Oh, they dared me!' crieth he. `They said I durst not take 'em: and so I had to do it.' Now, heard you ever such stuff in your born days? Why, they might have dared me till this time next year, afore ever I had turned thief for their daring." "But then, _Aunt_, you see," saith _Ned_, a twinkle in his eyes, "you are but a woman. That alters the case." "Just so, _Ned_," quoth Aunt _Joyce_, the fun in her eyes as in his: "I am one of the weaker sex, I know." "Now, I'll tell you," saith _Ned_, "how they essayed it with me, when I first joined my ship. They dared me--my mates, wot you--to go up to the masthead, afore I had been aboard a day. `Now, look you here, mates,' says I. `When the Admiral bids me, I'll scale every mast in the ship; and if I break my neck, I shall but have done my duty. But I'll do nought because I'm dared, and so that you know.' Well, believe me who will, but they cheered me as if I had taken a galleon laden with ducats. And I've been their white son [favourite] ever since." "Of course!" saith Aunt _Joyce_. "They alway do. 'Tis men which have no true courage that dare others: and when they come on one that hath, they hold him the greater hero because 'tis not in themselves to do the like. _Ned_, lad, thou art thy father's son. I know not how _Wat_ gat changed." "Well, _Aunt_, I hope I am," saith _Ned_. "I would liefer copy _Father_ than any man ever I knew." "Hold thou there, and thou shalt make a fair copy," saith Aunt _Joyce_. We wrought a while in silence, when Aunt _Joyce_ saith-- "Sure, if men's eyes were not blinded by the sin of their nature, they should perceive the sheer folly of fearing the lesser thing, and yet daring the greater. 'Feared of the laughter of fools, that is but as the crackling of thorns under the pot: and not 'feared of the wrath of Him that liveth for ever and ever--which is able, when He hath killed, to destroy body and soul in Hell. Oh the folly and blindness of human nature!" SELWICK HALL, MARCH YE VII. Was ever any creature so good as this dear Aunt _Joyce_ of ours? This morrow, when all were gone on their occasions saving her and _Father_, and _Nell_ and me, up cometh she to _Father_, that was sat with a book of his hand, and saith-- "_Aubrey_!" _Father_ laid down his book, and looked up on her.