One does not have gumption till one has been properly cheated--one must be made a fool very often in order not to be fooled at last!" "Well, Corporal, I shall now have opportunities enough of profiting by experience.

I am going to leave Grassdale in a few days, and learn suspicion and wisdom in the great world." "Augh! baugh!--what ?" cried the Corporal, starting from the contemplative air which he had hitherto assumed.

"The great world ?--how ?--when ?--going away;--who goes with your honour ?" "My honour's self; I have no companion, unless you like to attend me;" said Walter, jestingly--but the Corporal affected, with his natural shrewdness, to take the proposition in earnest.
"I! your honour's too good; and indeed, though I say it, Sir, you might do worse; not but what I should be sorry to leave nice snug home here, and this stream, though the trout have been shy lately,--ah! that was a mistake of yours, Sir, recommending the minnow; and neighbour Dealtry, though his ale's not so good at 'twas last year; and--and--but, in short, I always loved your honour--dandled you on my knees;--You recollect the broadsword exercise ?--one, two, three--augh! baugh!--and if your honour really is going, why rather than you should want a proper person who knows the world, to brush your coat, polish your shoes, give you good advice--on the faith of a man, I'll go with you myself!" This alacrity on the part of the Corporal was far from displeasing to Walter.

The proposal he had at first made unthinkingly, he now seriously thought advisable; and at length it was settled that the Corporal should call the next morning at the manor-house, and receive instructions as to the time and method of their departure.

Not forgetting, as the sagacious Bunting delicately insinuated, "the wee settlements as to wages, and board wages, more a matter of form, like, than any thing else--augh!".