tell me my way, not to show it; or else to persuade Mr. Heathcliff to give me a guide."
"Who? There is himself, Earnshaw, Zillah, Joseph, and I. Which would you have?"
"Are there no boys at the farm?"
"No, these are all."
"Then it follows that I am compelled to stay."
"That you may settle with your host. I have nothing to do with it."
"I hope it will be a leason to you, to make no more rash journeys on these hills," cried Heathciff's stern voice from the kitchen entrance. "As to staying here, I don't keep accommodations for visitors; you moat share a bed with Hareton or Joseph, if you do."
"I can sleep on a chair in this room," I replied.
"No, no! A stranger is a stranger, be he rich or poor—it will not suit me to permit any one the range at the place while I am off guard!" said the unmannerly wretch.
With this insult my patience was at an end. I uttered an expression of disgust, and pushed past him into the yard, running against Earnshaw in my haste. It was so dark that I could not see the means of exit, and as I wandered round I heard another specimen of their civil behavior among each other.
At first the young man appeared about to befriend ne.
"I'll go with him as far as the park," he said. "And who is to look after the horses, eh?"
"A man's life is of more consequence than one evening's neglect of the horses; somebody must go," murmured Mrs. Heathcliff, more kindly than I expected.
"Not at your command!" retorted Hareton. "If you set score on him you'd better be quiet."
"Then I hope his ghost will haunt you; and I hope Mr. Heathcliff will never get another tenant, till the Grange is a ruin!" she answered, sharply.
"Hearken, hearken, shoo's cursing on em!" muttered Joseph, toward whom I had been steering.
He sat within earshot, milking the cows by the aid of a lantern, which I seized unceremoniously, and calling out that I would send it back on the morrow, rushed to the nearest postern.
