"
"You know nothing about it, Janet," said Allen, in displeasure.
"But Allen," said his mother, apologetically, though she felt with
Janet, "the woods are locked up."
"Locked! As if that was any use when you let a lot of boys come
marauding all over the place!"
"Really, Allen," said his mother, "when I remember what we used to
say about old Mr. Barnes, I cannot find it in my heart to play the
same game!"
"It is quite a different thing."
"How?"
"He did it out of mere surliness."
"I don't suppose it makes much difference to the excluded whether it
is done out of mere surliness, or for the sake of the preserves."
"Mother!" Allen spoke as if the absurdity of the argument were quite
too much for him; but his brother and sister both laughed, which
nettled him into adding—-
"Well! All I have to say is, that if Belforest is to be nothing but
a people's park for all the ragamuffins in Kenminster, there will
soon not be a head of game in the place, and I shall be obliged to
shoot elsewhere!"
Poor Caroline! If there was a thing she specially hated, it was a
battue, both for the thing itself, and all the previous preparation
of preserving, and of prosecuting poachers; and yet sons have their
mothers so much in their power by that threat of staying away from
home, that she could not help faltering, "Oh, Allen, I'll do my best,
and tell the keepers to be very careful, and lock the gates of all
the preserves.
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