Nick told her about his mother being robbed." "And your sister wants to make it up to her.

Poor old woman! she is in great trouble, but she will not hear of leaving her cottage up there on the moor; and she says that next time the men come to rob her, they'll find she has two pots of boiling water ready for them." Ralph laughed, and went off, crossed the river at the shallows, and climbed the ascent to where the old woman lived in her rough stone cot, in its patch of garden; and as soon as he had given his present, with an addition from his own purse, and the fierce old lady had secured it in her pocket, she turned upon him angrily, upbraiding him and his for allowing such outrages to be committed.
"But there," she cried, when quite out of breath, "it's of no use to speak: there are no men now, and no boys.

When I was young, they'd have routed out those wretches and hung them before they knew where they were.

But only let them come here again, and they shall know what boiling water is." "They'll be well punished before long," said Ralph, as soon as he could get in a word.
"I don't believe it," cried the old woman.

"Don't tell me! I want to know what my boy, Nick, is about for not making his master do something.
It's shameful.