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Stone Edge.

CHAPTER IX.

BESSIE'S BURYING.

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HE boy German was the only one of his family who attended old Bessie's funeral. Ashford at the last moment declared that he was obliged to obey a summons from his landlord, who lived at a distance and only visited his estate in the hills from time to time on business, and was now at the old manorhouse for a few days.

"Th' auld squire have a sent for me to see him punctial some time to-day at the 'Knob house,' and I canna go to Youlcliffe; ye may tell 'um a' down there. And you mind to be home betimes, German, or you'll catch it," he called out as the boy went off.

The friends and neighbours

collected for the "beryin'" looked upon this message as a mere excuse, and public opinion declared itself strongly against old Ashford.

"Sure ill will should ha' died wi' death," said one; "and hur a leavin' sich a lot o' money to his daughter, too."

""Twill hurt nobody but hisself; his room's better nor's company any time is Ashford's," said another.

The world was likewise scandalized at Roland's absence. "She were like a mother to un," said society; "he should a strove to come home for to do her respect; he know'd she'd a had a fit, Nathan says."

The old woman was buried under the shadow of the spire which she was so proud of. ""Tis a cheerful pleasant place, like hersen," said Nathan to his nephew as they came away together, "and hur will be close to the pathway where her friends can come nigh her, and alongside o' her father for company like, till I come; 'twon't be long first. I've a ordered a headstone," ended the old man, sadly, "and it says,—

All you young men as passes by,
Throw a look and cast an eye;
As you is now, so once was I,
Prepare to live, as you must die.-

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for to learn um how they're here one hour and shed the next, like a poppyhead," sighed he, picking one as he passed. Then, as German was taking his leave, he called him back. "The money for Cassie is a lent to Jones, and I shall put in her name immediate and mak' it all right. Anyhow 'tain't mine, and I wunna ha' thy feyther cryin' out like as if he were burnt, and going about callin' o' me and saying as how I'd choused Cassie. But ye may mak' as though I'd ha' said it shouldna be done till such times as he'd gied his consent to her marrying wi' Roland. If yer aunt hadna been tuk so sudden as there isn't a mossel o' paper about it, I'm sure she'd a left it so. It's queer, too, about Roland," the old man went on. “I canna think what ails him to kip away so long. I've got it set in my mind it's about thae York lassies, for young uns is wonderful soon took up wi' a pretty face,-and they fa's into love and out again like as if it were a pond.--And 'tain't allus such a clean one either," moralized Nathan; "a lot o' muck they picks up whiles. Therefore I dunna mak’ sich a stand-up fight for Roland as I mid ha' done a while back till I sees my ways more plain. Man is but flesh, and flesh is wonderful weak by times," said Nathan the wise, skilled in human nature, "and you'd best say Cassie's to have him as she wishes to wed wi' an she's to get her aunt's money."

German returned home big with the importance of his mission, an. entered the house with a sense of dignity as the protector and arbiter of his sister's future. He found to his great relief that he was beforehand with his father, who had not yet returned from the squire; the kitchen was empty and he passed through to the garden on the other side, where he found the women busy hanging out the last results of a great wash. The ornamental ground had all been dug up and planted with vegetables, but there still remained a sort of raised flagged terrace at the upper end, sheltered by a great yew hedge, flanked with what had once been pyramids and "shapes" cut out in yew, which had grown all awry and deformed, for nobody at Stone Edge had any time for garden decorations. And here German betook himself directly to deliver his unaccustomed budget of news and give his opinion on family affairs of moment.

"Well-a-day!" said Lydia, sadly; "it mun ha' been a sore sight to see yer aunt laid i' th' ground, and hur took so sudden; but she were a well-livin' 'ooman as ivir were, and set her trust and her heart steadfast i' th' Lord."

"To be sure she did," replied the lad. And after a pause he went on, ""Twere a gran' dooment anyhow" (he was very fond of his aunt, but he could not help enjoying what, to him, had been a great entertainment). “There were a sight o' vittles and drink to be sure, and heaps o' folk was there to do her respect; and Martha Savage (as uncle Nathan had in for to help) a takin' on herself and wagging her tongue as uppish as mid be! And dunno ye sit there,' and 'Dunno ye bide so long there,' says she, catching everybody up like anythink. I raly didna know the place, and aunt Bessie, who'd iver the welcome i' her face and the

welcome i' her hand, and now she lay there so quiet, and couldn't so much as say a word!"

"And how did uncle Nathan abide Martha's takin' on herself so ?" said Cassie, rather indignantly.

"I dunno think he see'd or heerd owt as were a goin' on, he were so sore put about to have lost her as was gone. He sot there i' his chair quite lost like when they'd a' left but me, and then he telled me about Cassie's money. He wouldna let me go, but he says, 'Bide wi' me a bit, my lad; ye was her nevvy, and she held to ye both at Stone Edge a very deal.' And when Martha put in her word, he just tuk his hat silent, and come on wi' me a bit o' the road home out o' the way o' her tongue."

At this point in the discourse Ashford's loud harsh voice was heard ; he had just come home, and was calling on his womankind. "I'll go in to your feyther," said Lydia; "thee canst stop and hear all about it."

German had climbed, parenthetically as it were, during the interval, on to the top of a high wall, whence his long legs hung down as a sort of fringe. He went on: "Arter a while uncle Nathan talked wi' me a deal about Roland, Cassie-what for had no one see'd him this ever such a while? and that he'd a sent up a purpose for to tell him as aunt Bessie had a fit afore he went away. And Dick the joiner and the young man from the forge would ha' it Roland was agone courtin' down to York, and her name it were Mitchell, and she'd such cows and pigs to her portion as niver were." (Indeed rumour, assisted by Joshua, had worked so hard that it was only wonderful that Roland was not married already, in public report, to "the lass t'other side York.”)

Cassie was silent, taking the dry clothes from off the line. "And Dick laughs and says, 'Ah, Roland's a deep un; he's just kippin' away till he sees whether yer uncle gies Cassie her aunt's money or no.""

"I dunna believe that," said Cassie, with rising colour. "It's no more like Roland than as a fish can fly."

"And then another he says as Roland were summat changeable, and that ye must not trust to his father's son," said the lad, insisting on his point, and quite unconscious of the sharpness of the thrusts which he was driving into his sister's heart.

"I'm sure we've no reason for to think him changeable," answered the poor girl, turning away as she clutched an armful of linen spasmodically to her breast.

"Ye dunna know nowt about it, Cassie. How should ye? They says as how one time he were all so much for short-horns and sich like, and now he's all for them heifers from Durham. Thee hastna seen him this age; how canst thee tell?" said the lad, with an air of superiority, from the top of the wall where he had perched himself, and picking off little bits of stone and mortar, which he shied with great justness of aim at an old sow in the straw-yard commanded from his lofty position. "I hit hur that time i' th' left ear," added he, in an undertone, with a satisfied nod of his head.

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