Oswald could twice have got in a
heavy blow, but he abstained from doing so. He could see that his
antagonist was a favourite among his kinsmen, and felt that, were he to
discomfit him, he would excite a feeling of hostility against himself.
Both, panting from their exertions, drew a step backwards and lowered
their swords.
"Enough!" William Baird said, "The matter need be pushed no further.
'Tis long since I have seen so good a bout of swordplay. This young
fellow has learned his business, and if, in other respects, he does as
well, he will make a good recruit, indeed.
"What say you, lad? Will you join us for a month, till you see whether
you like our service, and we can judge how your service will suit us?
For that time you will have your living here, and drink money. After
that, if we agree, you can either be a retainer here, or we will give
you a holding on the moor, build you a shelter, give you a horse, and,
after our next foray, a clump of cattle."
"That will suit me well," Oswald said; "and I like well the month of
trial you propose."
"I will take him, if you will let me, Uncle, as my own man," Robert
Baird said. "If, at the end of the month, he chooses service with us,
and likes better to follow a master, with half a dozen men, than to
live alone on the moors.
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