I wonder if he ever looked back to the days when he was a farmin' boy and hadn't took to poaching?
He must have been a smart, handy kind of lad, and what a different look his face must have had then! We had our own horses in pretty good trim, so we foraged up Aileen's mare, and made it up to ride over to George Storefield's, and gave him a look-up.

He'd been away when we came, and now we heard he was home.
'George has been doing well all this time, of course,' I said.

'I expect he'll turn squatter some day and be made a magistrate.' 'Like enough,' says Jim.

'More than one we could pick began lower down than him, and sits on the Bench and gives coves like us a turn when we're brought up before 'em.

Fancy old George sayin', "Is anything known, constable, of this prisoner's anterseedents ?" as I heard old Higgler say one day at Bargo.' 'Why do you make fun of these things, Jim, dear ?' says Aileen, looking so solemn and mournful like.