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tical sort of way, accompanied by his more vigorous better half, who exercised a brisk supervision over him took off his beaver hat and laid it on the dresser, got him settled down in a chair, then smoothed his coat for him, gave his hair, what there was of it a little set back, and touched him up in a general way; saying as she performed these wifely offices, that "old folks got 'mazing helpless, and for her part she couldn't think what she'd ever got married for at all, for he wasn't no sort o' thing to look up to, and took a vast deal o' mindin' to help him along in the right track."

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"I allers said them trains was nasty things," said Milly, taking out her white pocket-handkerchief to receive the cake which Sally was handing round to the company. She had modestly declined being assisted to ale, having a misty sort of notion that it wasn't feminine.

"They're all a invention frae beneath," rejoined her spouse, whose trade had declined considerably since the advent of railroads about Braeton. "Whar ever herd o' sich like awful things as these] here in t' good old coachin'

times? I allus said harm would come on't when folks tried to go faster than their Maker meant 'em to; not but what I think there's plenty o' folks in t' warld as 'ud be all t' better for bein' shifted out on it, least ways t' warld 'ud be better, if t' folks wasn't themselves. But it's allus t' best kind as gets took; t' others hangs on as isn't no good to onybody."

"Well, it isn't no good frettin' as I can see," said Matthew Benn meditatively, from his armchair opposite Mrs. Brant. Polly always took care to get her husband a good seat out of the way of draughts, for he cost her so much trouble in colds. "We can't fetch him back nohow, an' he's gotten landed in a good place."

"No use frettin'!" responded his wife, to whose active, brisk temperament Matthew's meek submission was a perpetual worrit. "Who said. it was? An' yet I'd like to know who fretted more nor yourself when our Jem was took -him as went off in faver last fall, ye mind, Mrs. Brant, I've no manner of patience wi' folks as tells their neighbours not to fret, an' sings out like mad if ony o' their own bairns

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is took from t' evil to come. I say as how Mr. Roden's a man as ought to be fretted for, an' it's many a wet eye there'll be for him in this parish," and Polly shook out her pockethandkerchief full of crumbs into the fire-place, and took a fresh piece of cake.

"Ay, he was a right 'un, he was," said Milly, "Why, the times I've see'd him take and lift our Willy over yon great mud puddle just afore t' school-house door, when it was over big for t' poor bairn to stride across, wi'out gettin' up to shoe-tops i' watter; an' I've heerd of his goin' to read to old Machin, an' sendin' his servant to help her with her bit o' work, an' I say a man as 'll do the like o' that has a power o' good in t' heart on him, an' ought to be fretted over right well. An' t' poor young leddy, Miss Maud, her as he were goin' to be wed to -an' a bonnier he couldn't ha' found, - oh, but she'll be sore hurt, the darling, an' it's many a soul ought to pray for her whiles."

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Pray for her!" said Polly, with an indignant swing of her portly shoulders, "pray for her,

the jewel! an' its precious little some folks

prays for them as gets the trouble sent. Why, it was nobbut last night as I was a bilin' some peas for supper, in come Miss Tim, yon old maid, ye mind, from Marbrook, and says she to me, 'Mrs. Benn,' says she, 'you've been having a shocking warning in this parish.'

"Yes, Miss,' I says, an' puts another stalk o' mint in among t' peas, and I didn't say nowt else, for I couldn't think o' nothin' to say.

"It'll be a great visitation for Miss Maud,' she says, as hard and cold like as a raw potaty.

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"Yes, Miss,' says I again, an' it seems to me as if there's many a one deserved it more nor she did, the jewel.'

"Well, then she kind o' drew herself up like, an' looked as big as you please. I'm thinking she doesn't like me to call her Miss, seein' as she's getting ould, but I don't mean ever to call her ought else, for she ain't married, no wonder either, and hasn't got no right to be called like them as is.

"And then she says, says she, 'It's a pro

vidence upon her for not givin' up herself a bit more to the work o' the church. She never made herself useful with bazaars or aught o' that sort, and lived over much to herself.' Just think o' the like o' that now! an' that dear young lady wearin' and slavin' of herself from year end to year end, comin' to see us, an' helping of us on, and talkin' so kind and precious like to I couldn't bear it, it kind o' riled me up, an' I'd got t' pot lid i' my hand.'"

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Here Sally opened her round eyes, and listened with breathless interest, while Polly flourished her hands about and jerked her head until the ribbons on her bonnet danced again.

"I'd got t' pot lid i' my hand, an' I could ha' throwed it at her, I just could, if it hadn't been for a pleeceman about on t' other side o' t' road; but I telled her a bit o' my mind, I did. 'Miss Tim,' says I, 'ye're an evil-minded woman, ye are, to go for to blacken that dear precious young leddy, whose ould shoes ye aren't good enough to wear; that bonnie young leddy," " and here Polly's voice melted into a rich counter-tenor, "that goes in an' out among the

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