"What say you?"
"It comes suddenly upon me, Father; but, as I have always thought that
I should like to see something of the world beyond our own dales, I
would gladly, for a time at least, accept my uncle's offer; which is a
rare one, and far beyond my hopes. I should be sorry to leave you and
my mother but, save for that it seems to me, as to you, that it would
be best for me to go out into the world, for a time."
"Then that is settled, and tomorrow you shall ride to Alnwick and see,
at any rate, if aught comes of the matter.
"Do not cry, Wife. It is your counsel that I am acting upon, and you
have told me you are sure that it is best that he should go. It is not
as if he were taking service with a southern lord. He will be but a
day's ride away from us, and doubtless will be able to come over, at
times, and stay a day or two with us; and once a year, when times are
peaceable, you shall ride behind me, on a pillion, to see how things go
with him at the Percys' castle. At any rate it will be better, by far,
than if he had carried out that silly fancy of his, for putting himself
in the hands of the monks and learning to read and write; which would,
perchance, have ended in his shaving his crown and taking to a cowl,
and there would have been an end of the Forsters of Yardhope.
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