"But why should I deny it, George; why should I tell you all of a
Scotsman?"
"Why, y' see, Peter," said George, in his heavy way, "you be such
a strange sort o' chap!"
"George," said I, "let us get back to work."
Yet, in a little while, I set aside the hammer, and turned to the
door.
"Peter, wheer be goin'?"
"To try and make my peace with the Ancient," I answered, and
forthwith crossed the road to "The Bull." But with my foot on
the step I paused, arrested by the sound of voices and laughter
within the tap, and, loudest of all, was the voice of the pseudo
blacksmith, Job.
"If I were only a bit younger!" the Ancient was saying. Now,
peeping in through the casement, a glance at his dejected
attitude, and the blatant bearing of the others, explained to me
the situation then and there.
"Ah! but you ain't," retorted old Amos, "you 'm a old, old man
an' gettin' older wi' every tick o' the clock, you be, an'
gettin' mazed-like wi' years."
"Haw! haw!" laughed Job and the five or six others.
"Oh, you--Job! if my b'y Simon was 'ere 'e'd pitch 'ee out into
the road, so 'e would--same as Black Jarge done," quavered the
Ancient.
"P'r'aps, Gaffer, p'r'aps!" returned Job, "but I sez again, I
believe what Peter sez, an' I don't believe there never was no
ghost at all."
"Ay, lad, but I tell 'ee theer was--I seed un!" cried the old man
eagerly, "seed un wi' these two eyes, many's the time. You,
Joel Amos--you've 'eerd un a-moanin' an' a-groanin'--you believe
as I seed un, don't 'ee now come?"
"He! he!" chuckled Old Amos, "I don't know if I du, Gaffer--ye
see you 'm gettin' that old--"
"But I did--I did--oh, you chaps, I tell 'ee I did!"
"You 'm gettin' old, Gaffer," repeated Amos, dwelling upon the
theme with great unction, "very, very old--"
"But so strong as a bull, I be!" added the Ancient, trying
manfully to steady the quaver in his voice.
"Haw! haw!" laughed Job and the others, while Old Amos chuckled
shrilly again.
"But I tell 'ee I did see un, I--I see'd un plain as plain,"
quavered the Ancient, in sudden distress. "Old Nick it were, wi'
'orns, an' a tail."