"My dear, brave child," she said, kissing Hilda warmly, "to think of your facing that great villain and driving him away! The courage of you! Though to be sure, any one could see it in your eyes, and your father a soldier so many of his days too." "Oh! it was not I who frightened him," said honest Hilda, "it was the old pistol." But Nurse Lucy only shook her head and kissed her again.
The thought of Simon's ingratitude and treachery next absorbed her mind, and tears of anger stood in her kind blue eyes.
"It was a black day for my poor man," she said, "when he brought that fellow to the house.

I mistrusted him from the first look at his sulky face.

A man who can't look you in the eyes,--well, there! that's my opinion of him!" "Why did the farmer bring him here ?" asked Hilda.

"I have often wondered." "Why, 'tis a long story, my dear," said Nurse Lucy, smoothing her apron and preparing for a comfortable chat ("For," she said, "Simon will not dare to stir from his room, even if he could get out, which he can't.").
"Of all his brothers, my husband loved his brother Simon best.

He was a handsome, clever fellow, Simon was.