"Yes; but if any one could claim a proper shelter for his head, it is you, Giles. You served the family for fifty years, and after spending the best part of your life working for them, the least they could do, would be to keep the wind and rain off your old white head."
"It is not right to talk like this, Martin," returned Giles, gravely, "for you might make me discontented with my lot. You forget that by allowing me to work for them, they gave me food for all those years--and if I did my work honestly, only for the reward they had to give me, I deserved to lose it."
"Of what family are you speaking?" enquired the stranger, slightly rousing himself, and drawing a little more into the circle.
"Who is your landlord, and what prevents his seeing to your comforts?"
Martin seemed anxious to reply; but he was prevented by Giles.
"Our landlord is Colonel Hargrave, a very brave officer, I have heard; but, in looking for glory abroad, he has, unfortunately for himself and us, forgotten his dependents at home. He has scarcely seen anything of us since he came into the property."
"But surely," said the stranger, warmly, "if he did spend his time beyond the seas--I dare say, for some private reason--he must have left some trusty steward, who could take charge of his property during his absence, and protect the labourers on his estate from the privations you speak of?"
"Trusty steward, indeed," Martin began, in a growling voice, but Giles again interrupted him.
"Sir, it is kind of you to take so much interest in our concerns. It may be that you have estates somewhere yourself--it may be that you have left them to the care of others, believing that you are trusting honest servants; but, if you could see how much we have suffered, you would never do so again. Our landlord has left with us an oppressive and cruel man, who takes pleasure in shewing his power in the smallest thing. In our good lady's time, we were allowed to pick up any wood that the wind blew down, so that our firing cost us next to nothing; but now this is entirely done away by the keepers. Many of our little rights too he has taken away, according, as he says, to his master's orders, though 'tis not very likely a gentleman abroad would think of such things so many miles away. He receives our rents without spending any part of them in repairing our cottages, and the consequence is, they are tumbling down for want of repair, while the same rent is demanded for them. This brings much illness and discomfort--but what I lament over most," said the old man, with a sigh, "is that the feelings of every one are aggravated against Colonel Hargrave, who, it may be, knows nothing about it."