"Yes, I can."
The rector was taken aback, for he had expected a different answer.
"And what is more noble?" he asked.
"I think it is better to clean the old name; and I'll do it, if I can." There was a steady light of purpose in the eye of the youth, as he replied.
The parson said nothing for a time and they walked on in silence and then——
"Perhaps you are right, lad. You are very much like your father. Those were his words and sentiments. I trust you may be more successful, though."
Parson Trant, while giving vent to these brief, epigrammatic sentences, was thinking of another matter,—the depredations on the estate of the Manor,—and had just decided to broach that unhappy subject. They were standing near the village stocks and the parson, placing his arm again in that of Ande, began the subject in an indirect manner.
CHAPTER III
"And as the chariot rolled along the plain,
Light from the ground he leaped, and seized the rein;
Thus hung in air, he still retain'd his hold,
The coursers frighted, and their course controlled."