"I'd do all you do for him, and more, if you wasn't here," declared Jane, and met an uncompromising answer. "No, you wouldn't, or anything like what I do; and well you know it, you pretty dear." Mr. Bamsey thanked Lawrence heartily for his good offices in the past on Dinah's behalf, and Faith Bamsey, his wife, echoed him. "The blessing is she ain't marked," said Ben. "I much feared she would be, for 'twas an evil cut, but such is the health of her blood that she healed instanter, and now, you see nought but a red mark that grows fainter every day." The visitor regarded Dinah's face and admitted it was so. "Wonderful," he said. "I never should have thought that ugly gash would have cleared up so well." "Nature's on the side of the young," replied Benjamin. "She spoils 'em you may say. Not that anything could spoil Dinah." "You can, and you do," she said. "Oh, no. 'Tis the other way round. You'd keep me in cotton wool if you could. I'm feared of my life for Johnny that you'll make him soft." "And tell him he's not to go out and fight the poachers by night, and silly things like that," added Jane. "More likely offer to go out and help him fight 'em," said Maynard, and Ben applauded. "That's right! You know her better than Jane do seemingly. Dinah won't stand between John and his duty--that's certain sure." "No woman will ever come between my son and his duty," said Faith. "There's some young men be born with a sense of duty, and some gets it by their training and some, of course, never do. But John was doing his duty when he was five year old--came natural to him." "And what's the duty of a five year old, ma'am?" asked Lawrence. He found himself easy and comfortable with the Bamseys. "To obey his parents and trust in 'em first and last and always," answered Faith. "He was blessed with a very fine nature from his birth, and nothing ever happened to make him depart from it." "One of the lucky ones, that finds it easier to be good than anything else." "No, Mr. Maynard; you mustn't say that," answered Johnny's father. "You may be as good as gold, but you can't escape the old Adam. God Almighty don't make us angels, though he gives us the chance to imitate them." "In fact, nobody can get high virtues by nature," summed up Mrs. Bamsey. "They've got to be worked for. And another thing--you can't win to goodness and then sit down and say, 'I've got the Lord, so now I'm out of the wood and safe for ever more.' That's not life. Nobody's ever out of the wood, and them that think they stand be often most like to fall. Things be sent to try our faith in God, and He sends 'em Himself."