Many thanks all the same to you, sir.' 'Hark ye, my lad,' said the master impatiently.

'I want to buy your old hut and field from you.

I'll give ye a ten-pound note for it; a whole ten pounds.

Why, a fortune for you!' 'Father said,' repeated Stephen, 'I was never to give up Fern's Hollow; and I gave him a sure promise for that, and to take care of little Nan as long as ever I lived.' 'Fern's Hollow is none of yours,' cried the master, in a rage; 'you've just been a family of paupers and squatters, living up here by poaching and thieving.

I'll unearth you, I promise ye; you have been a disgrace to the manor long enough.