Hal, with a puzzled expression, said that he did not see why. He generally managed to see to the bottom of things pretty quickly, and to catch people's meaning when it was not quite on the surface. But this notion perplexed him not a little. Inequality of rank did not enter much into Hal's ideas.
"She sings to you, doesn't she?" observed he presently, after having thought all round the question in vain.
"And you talk," rejoined Farmer Bluff. "Maggie doesn't talk; she chatters, if she does anything in that line."
"I like to talk," answered Hal simply; "as much as other boys like to run and jump, I fancy; perhaps it is because I can't run and jump."
"Perhaps it is," said Farmer Bluff. He was thinking that it seemed as if God had given the boy a better power in exchange for the one He had withheld. "A ready tongue 'll be useful to you when you come to the Manor," added he.
"Only I shan't be able to follow the hounds," said Hal regretfully.
"Never you grieve for that," returned Farmer Bluff. "You'll have the hearts of your tenantry; that I'll certify."
"Farmer Bluff," said Hal suddenly, "I've been thinking a good deal about Dick Crozier since yesterday. I expect he'll be one of my tenants by and by, you know, and I'm afraid he won't be a very good one."
"About the average run, perhaps," said Farmer Bluff. "Some better, and some worse."
"But don't you see," said Hal, "he's got no principle. He doesn't think it matters the least bit in the world if a boy chooses to sell his soul for sixpence—like Bill, when he thieved to get the goose egg for him."