The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: encamped on a little verdant mound, from the midst of which there
welled a spring of clear water scarce great enough to wash the
hands in. We had made our meal and lain down, but were not yet
asleep, when a growl from one of the collies set us on the alert.
All three sat up, and on a second impulse all lay down again, but
now with our cudgels ready. A man must be an alien and an outlaw,
an old soldier and a young man in the bargain, to take adventure
easily. With no idea as to the rights of the quarrel or the
probable consequences of the encounter, I was as ready to take part
with my two drovers, as ever to fall in line on the morning of a
battle. Presently there leaped three men out of the heather; we
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