IX. BARE IN FAT PASTURE.

FORESTERS have informed me, that outlodging deer are seldom seen to be so fat as those which keep themselves within the park. Whereof they assign this reason: that those stragglers, though they have more ground to range over, more grass and grain to take their repast upon, yet they are in constant fear, as if conscious that they are trespassers, being out of the protection, because out of the pale of the park. This makes their eyes and ears always to stand sentinels for their mouths, lest the master of the ground pursue them for the damage done unto him.

Are there any which unjustly possess the houses of others? Surely such can never with quiet and comfort enjoy either their places or themselves. They always listen to the least noise of news, suspecting the right owner should be re-estated, whose restitution of necessity infers the other’s ejection. Lord, grant that though my means be never so small, grant they may be my means, not wrongfully detained from others having a truer title unto them.