ILLUSTRATIONS

[Merrylips]
[More than once they had to pause and sit by the path, while the lad rested]
["I am come, on behalf of the Parliament, to search your house for arms"]
["Faith, here's a schooling in which I'll bear a hand, my pretty gentleman!"]
[He laid a hand on Merrylips' shoulder and drew her to him]
["He's hurt. Thou must not waken him," she said]
[Rupert and Merrylips knew it was useless to think of escape]
[She stopped and across the rim stared at the man]
[On his bared chest was a red mark like a fresh cut]

MERRYLIPS

CHAPTER I

A MAID OF OLD

The little girl's name was Sybil Venner, but she was known as Merrylips. For Sir Thomas Venner, her jolly, bluff father, never by any chance called a child of his by its baptismal name. His tall eldest son, Thomas, answered, whether he liked it or not, to the nickname of Longkin, and Edmund and Philip, the two younger lads, became Munn and Flip, and Katharine, the oldest girl, was Puss, and prim Lucy was Pug.

So when Sir Thomas came riding home from London town and first saw his little daughter Sybil, a baby of three months old, crowing and laughing in her cradle, he cried:—

"'Truth, here's a merry lass! Come to thy dad, little Merrylips."