"'Look 'ere,' answers back the Deacon, 'ef you've drapped your eye,
an' be that fond o' the cheap-jack thing that you can't get on wi'out
et, send round Deacon Spettigue to hunt, an' not a man as can't see
sax inches afore hes nose. Et's out o' reas'n,' he said, 'an' you
ort to know better.'
"In cou'se, tho', when he found out hes mistake an' lugged the thing
out o' hes pocket, there was Bedlam let loose, for up five minnits,
ivery mother's son chitterin' an' laffin, an' the Deacon lookin' like
a pig in a fit. He desarted the Seceders that very week, an' niver
darken'd the Meetin' House door agen to the day o' hes death.
"Well, the fuss got calmed over, but somehow the Lawyer cudn' niver
trust hes eye as he used to. He said 'twarn't fully dependable; an',
sure 'nuff, within a month et slipped out agen, and th' ould man was
forced to go to Plymouth an' buy another, a bit smaller. So he lost
by his mean ways arter all. He tried to trade back th' ould eye, but
the shopman wudn'; so he brought et home in hes pocket, and laid it
by in the chaney cupboard, 'long wi' the cloam, [9] an' there et
bided.
"An' now, sir, I'm a-comin' to the most curiosest part o' my yarn:
an' you can believe or no, as you thinks fit, but I'll tell 'ee jest
what I knows an' no more.
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