When I comes, she gi'es a look
same as to say, 'I reckon I've a-got to go. I've a-been a mother to
that there egg; an' I'd ha' liked to see't through afore I went.
But, seemingly, 'twarn't ordained.' An' wi' that there was a kind o'
flutter, an' when I turned her over I seed her troubles were done.
Thet fowl, sir, had _passed_."
"You tell the story with such sympathy, Caleb, that I appeal to you
the more readily for advice. I find it hard to concentrate my
attention this morning."
"Ef I mou't make free to shake 'ee agen--"
"I should prefer any other cure."
"Very well, sir. I _have_ heerd, from trippers as comes to Troy, to
spend the day an' get drunk in anuther parish for vari'ty's sake, as
a pennorth o' say es uncommon refreshin'."
"A pennyworth of sea?"
"That's so, sir. Twelve in a boat, an' a copper a head to the
boatman to row so far as there an' back, which es cheap an' empt'in'
at the price, as a chap told me."
"You advise me to take a row?"
"Iss, sir; on'y I reckon you'd best go up the river, ef you'm goin'
alone. Though whether you prefers the resk o' meetin' Adm'ral Buzza
to bein' turned topsy-versy outside the harbour-mouth, es a question
I leaves to you. 'Tes a matter o' taste, as Mounseer said by the
yaller frog."
Mr.
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