“Na-ay, I shan’t,” growled the man. “Bang the boots and the weskit! I won’t have ’em now. You say it’s right for that there poor young chap to be took care of, and it shall be done. You have got him all right up there; but your father’s coming home. What will he say?”
“Oh, don’t talk about it,” cried the boy excitedly. “It makes me shiver!”
“Do it? Well, look here, lad; when you know he’s coming home, you hand the chap over to me.”
“What, could you hide him somewhere?”
“Could I hide him somewhere? Haw! Haw!” laughed the man. “He says, could I hide him somewhere?” And he looked round as if to address the robin; but the bird had flitted away, and Bunny Wrigg gazed straight in the boy’s eyes again. “Of course I could, lad, and where no soldiers could find him and even you couldn’t. You let me have him, and he’ll be all right.”
“Bunny, you are a good fellow!” cried Waller excitedly. “And you shall have the best waistcoat and boots that money can buy.”
“Nay I sha’n’t, lad,” growled the man, “and if you say any more about them things I shan’t play. That there young Frenchy chap must be a good sort, or you wouldn’t have made him your friend. Why, I’d rather hear you call me a good fellow like you did just now, and think of me, being the young Squire, as your friend, than have all the weskits in the world. But I say, look here, Master Waller,” said Bunny thoughtfully, “I could hide that chap in one of my snuggeries; but what about the winter time?”
“What about the winter time?” said Waller, staring.
“Ay; when it’s always raining, or snow’s on the ground. I don’t mind, because the water runs off me, same as it would off a wild duck; and as for the frost and snow, I could roll in ’em like a dog. But such a chap as your friend—it’d kill him in no time. He’d be catching colds and sore gullets, and having the roomis.”
“Oh, but it wouldn’t be for long.”