’Yes—like to have. There are so many little feet at home that tread holes.’ ’You must be glad that they are two-footed, not four-footed animals, those brothers and sisters of yours.’ ’I am, or I could not darn their stockings, much less knit them.’ Hillary thought a moment; then he said, looking at a pair of very much darned red stockings hung over a branch of heather, ’You know they call you the Red Spider, and they say true. The Red Spider brings luck wherever she goes. I am sure you are the money-spinner in your house.’ ’I!’ exclaimed the girl, who coloured slightly, and looked up; ’I—I spin, but never money.’ ’Well, you bring luck.’ ’I keep out ill-luck,’ she answered with confidence; ’I can do no more, but that is something, and that takes me all my time. I have hardly leisure to sleep.’ ’Why have you brought all these stockings out on the Down? Are you going to convert Wellon’s Cairn into a second-hand mercer’s shop?’ ’Larry, in spite of proverb to the contrary, I am forced to do two things at a time. I have Diamond to watch as well as stockings to darn. The poor beast is not well, and I have brought him from the stable. The little ones are at school, except of course Temperance, and Kate is with her cutting grass in the lane for Diamond.’ ’What would you do if you lost Diamond?’ asked young Hillary. ’O Larry, don’t even suggest such an evil. If you whistle you call up wind, and if you whisper the name of the devil he looks in at the door. We got into debt buying Diamond, and it took us three years to work our way out. Now we are clear, and it would be too dreadful to get into debt again. You know, Larry, what the mothers do with children who have the thrush. They pass them under a bramble that grows with a loop into the ground. Like enough the little creatures lose the thrush, but they carry away scratches. Debt, to my thinking, is like treatment; you get rid of one evil by sticking yourself full of thorns. So take my advice, and never get into debt.’ ’I’m not like to,’ laughed the young man, ’with Chimsworthy behind me and Langford before me.’ ’Never reckon on what you’ve not got,’ said Honor. ’That’s like buying the hogshead before the apples have set, or killing a pig without having the pickle-tub. Langford is not yours, any more than Coombe Park is ours.’ ’Langford must come to us Nanspians some day, you know, Honor. Not that I reckon on it. God forbid. May Uncle Taverner live for ever. But it gives a chap confidence to know that a large estate will come to him in the end.’ ’Don’t reckon on that,’ said Honor. ’It can’t fail. It stands so in the deeds.’ ’But Mr. Langford might marry.’ Hillary would have burst into a hearty laugh at the idea, had not Honor laid her hand on his arm to arrest him, and raised the forefinger of the other to impose silence.