He brought those convictions with him to Burley, and the courage also.
Why, in a single year—and a busy, bustling one it had been—the new Squire had worked a revolution about the place. Lucky for him, he had a well-lined purse to begin with, or he could hardly have come to the root of things, or made such radical reforms as he did.
When he first took a look round the farm-steading, he felt puzzled where to begin first. But he went to work steadily, and kept it up, and it is truly wonderful what an amount of solid usefulness can be effected by either man or boy, if he has the courage to adopt such a plan.
CHAPTER II.
A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK
It was no part of Squire Broadbent's plan to turn away old and faithful servants. He had to weed them though, and this meant thinning out to such an extent that not over many were left.
The young and healthy creatures of inutility had to shift; but the very old, the decrepit—those who had become stiff and grey in his uncle's service—were pensioned off. They were to stay for the rest of their lives in the rural village adown the glen—bask in the sun in summer, sit by the fire of a winter, and talk of the times when "t 'old Squire was aboot."
The servants settled with, and fresh ones with suitable "go" in them established in their place, the live stock came in for reformation.
"St. Mary! what a medley!" exclaimed the Squire, as he walked through the byres and stables, and past the styes. "Everything bred anyhow. No method in my uncle's madness. No rules followed, no type. Why the quickest plan will be to put them all to the hammer."
This was cutting the Gordian-knot with a vengeance, but it was perhaps best in the long run.