You know I promised that this year you should go to the meets on your pony, and see as much of them as you can, and of course when you were at school you would only be able to indulge in these matters during your holidays; and if a hard frost set in, as is the case three times out of four, just as you came home, you would be out of it altogether.
"I must say I should like you to have a real love of field sports and to be a good shot and a good rider.

A man, however wide his acres may be, is thought but little of in the country if he is not a good sportsman; and, moreover, there is nothing better for developing health and muscles than riding, and tramping over the fields with a gun on your shoulder; and, lastly, you must not forget, Mark, that one of my objects in making this arrangement is to keep Mr.Bastow with us.

I am sure that unless he thought that he was making himself useful he would not be content to remain here; and at his age, you know, it would be hard for him to obtain clerical employment." "All right, father.

I see that the present plan is the best, and that I should have but little sport if I went away to school.

Besides, I like Mr.Bastow very much, and I am quite sure that I shan't get so many whackings from him as I used to do from old Holbrook." "I fancy not, Mark," his father said with a smile.