Then he picked up a long coil of rope lying near and examined it with critical eye, which yet seemed to disapprove of its texture and quality; and then, idly fashioning a running noose at one end, he coiled that rope up, and sent it with a flying jerk over a post thirty feet away.
The man stared and paused in his work.
"Ay, but ye couldn't do that again, sir," he ventured; and Ralph, with a little flush of something like conceit, immediately repeated his performance.
"That be main clever," said the man, and he shambled off to get "Tom" and "Garge" and "Luke" to come and see the young gentleman's wonderful deed.
Ralph was delighted, and he varied his work by sending the noose over one of the men as he ran at full speed across the yard. It was nothing to him; he had handled a rope as soon as he had handled anything, and he wondered at the surprise the thing caused to these men.
"Sending the noose over one of the men as he ran at
full speed across the yard." p. 7
A drove of cattle passed, and Ralph paused and regarded them with interest. They were good beasts, but nothing like the troublesome wild cattle which he had known. They seemed perfectly contented with everything in this life.
"They are very quiet," he observed, and the man nodded.