'Stixon, my man, you have acted for the best, and showed a sound discretion.

Stixon,' he would have said, 'here's a George and Dragon in reward of your gallant conduck.' Ah, that sort of manliness is died out now." This grated at first upon my feelings, because it seemed tainted with selfishness, and it did not entirely agree with my own recollections of my father.

But still Mr.Stixon must have suffered severely in that conflict, and to blame him for not showing rashness was to misunderstand his position.

And so, before putting any other questions to him, I felt in my pocket for a new half sovereign, which I hoped would answer.
Mr.Stixon received it in an absent manner, as if he were still in the struggle of his story, and too full of duty to be thankful.

Yet I saw that he did not quite realize the truth of a nobly philosophic proverb--"the half is more than the whole." Nevertheless, he stowed away his half, in harmony with a good old English saying.
"Now, when you were able to get up at last," I inquired, with tender interest, "what did you see, and what did you do, and what conclusion did you come to ?" "I came to the conclusion, miss, that I were hurt considerable.
Coorosity on my part were quenched by the way as I had to rub myself.
But a man is a man, and the last thing to complain of is the exercise of his functions.