“So have you.”

“Long time since we met.”

“Ay, ’tis.”

“Like this here garden?”

“Middling.”

Each of these little questions and answers was accompanied by a blow dealt right out from the shoulder, sharp and short, till the men’s chests must have been a mass of bruises. Then they drew back, and stared at each other.

“Who told you to come and work in my garden?” said Nat at last.

“Nobody; I did it out of my own head.”

“And pray why?”

“Because I thought, if ever you came back, it would make you mad.”