'Is the good man come?' asked Nat Chapman. 'No,--I see we be here afore
him. And how is it with aged women to-night, Mrs. Martin?' 'Tedious traipsing enough with this one, Nat. Sit ye down. Well, little Freddy, you don't wish in the morning that 'twere evening, and at evening
that 'twere morning again, do you, Freddy, trust ye for it?' 'Now, who might wish such a thing as that, Mrs Martin?--nobody in this parish?' asked Sammy Blore curiously.
'My lady is always wishing it,' spoke up Miss Tabitha Lark.
'Oh, she! Nobody can be answerable for the wishes of that onnatural
tribe of mankind. Not but that the woman's heart-strings is tried in
many aggravating ways.' 'Ah, poor woman!' said granny. 'The state she finds herself in--neither
maid, wife, nor widow, as you may say--is not the primest form of life
for keeping in good spirits. How long is it since she has heard from Sir
Blount, Tabitha?' 'Two years and more,' said the young woman. 'He went into one side of
Africa, as it might be, three St. Martin's days back. I can mind it,
because 'twas my birthday. And he meant to come out the other side.
But he didn't. He has never come out at all.' 'For all the world like losing a rat in a barley-mow,' said Hezekiah. 'He's lost, though you know where he is.' His comrades nodded.
'Ay, my lady is a walking weariness. I seed her yawn just at the very
moment when the fox was halloaed away by Lornton Copse, and the hounds
runned en all but past her carriage wheels. If I were she I'd see a
little life; though there's no fair, club-walking, nor feast to speak of,
till Easter week,--that's true.' 'She dares not. She's under solemn oath to do no such thing.' 'Be cust if I would keep any such oath! But here's the pa'son, if my
ears don't deceive me.' There was a noise of horse's hoofs without, a stumbling against the door-
scraper, a tethering to the window-shutter, a creaking of the door on its
hinges, and a voice which Swithin recognized as Mr. Torkingham's. He
greeted each of the previous arrivals by name, and stated that he was
glad to see them all so punctually assembled.
'Ay, sir,' said Haymoss Fry. ''Tis only my jints that have kept me from
assembling myself long ago. I'd assemble upon the top of Welland
Steeple, if 'tweren't for my jints. I assure ye, Pa'son Tarkenham, that
in the clitch o' my knees, where the rain used to come through when I was
cutting clots for the new lawn, in old my lady's time, 'tis as if rats
wez gnawing, every now and then. When a feller's young he's too small in
the brain to see how soon a constitution can be squandered, worse luck!' 'True,' said Biles, to fill the time while the parson was engaged in finding the Psalms. 'A man's a fool till he's forty. Often have I
thought, when hay-pitching, and the small of my back seeming no stouter
than a harnet's, "The devil send that I had but the making of labouring
men for a twelvemonth!" I'd gie every man jack two good backbones, even
if the alteration was as wrong as forgery.' 'Four,--four backbones,' said Haymoss, decisively.