"But, uncle!--oh, Peggy knows all about him," said Susan; "Peggy did not know he had any friends till just the other day. Perhaps he did not know himself--perhaps--I think, Uncle Edward, I would not believe he was wrong till he told you of it himself." "But if he is in the wrong, Susan, _will_ he tell me of it himself?" "Some people would not," said Susan, gravely, "I know that; but yes, uncle, oh, yes, I am not afraid." "Perhaps you know him better than I do, my love," said Uncle Edward, observing with a little curiosity the expression of Susan's face. "Yes, I think I saw him once," said Susan. Then she added, with a little laugh--"I was very much frightened--I am afraid it was very wrong of him--he was actually fighting, uncle." "Fighting?--it was certainly very wrong," said the Colonel; "but you laugh, you wicked little fairy--what was it about?" "It was not so much fighting either," said Susan--"it was _punishing_. It was gipsies, uncle--what the people here call muggers, you know. One of them was driving his little cart along the road with a poor wretched donkey, lashing it like a savage, and his poor wife came trudging after him, with her baby tied in a shawl on her back--and twice over he gave _her_ a cut with his whip, to make her go faster. I could have beaten him myself--the great beast!" cried Susan. "Roger Musgrave was coming down the road; and, just as he met the muggers, that fellow pushed his wife out of the way so rudely, that she fell down, poor creature, and hurt herself. Mr. Roger had been watching them like me--he came up just then with a spring, and caught the mugger by his collar and his waist like this; and, before he had time to say a word, tossed him over the hedge--_right_ over--where he rolled head-over-heels on the grass. You should have seen his face when he got up! I clapped my hands--I was so pleased. And Mr. Roger took off his hat to me," said Susan, after a little pause, with a rising colour, "as you did, uncle, to-day." "It was very well done, I don't doubt," said Colonel Sutherland; "but, my dear child, that was not fighting." "Oh, no--not that!--but I liked it better than what came after," said Susan. "The mugger scrambled through the hedge, and swore at Mr. Roger; and _he_ took off his coat in a moment, and told him not to be a coward, to flog women and beasts, but to come on--and I was very much frightened; then the mugger's wife, _she_ came forward and swore too, and it was all very dreadful. I did not want to see them fight, and ran into a cottage--I rather think they did not fight at all, for the mugger was frightened too; but, however, that was the only time I ever saw Roger Musgrave; the people in the cottage told me who he was, and I liked him for punishing the man."