ainst this wall; but when missus died, we forgot to tell 'em, and
put 'em in mourning, and, in course, they swarmed away without our
knowing, and the next winter came a hard frost, and they died. Now, I
dare say, the water will be boiling; and it's time for little master
there to come in, for the dew is falling. See, all the daisies is
shutting themselves up."

Sally was most gracious as a hostess. She quite put on her company
manners to receive Ruth in the kitchen. They laid Leonard to sleep on
the sofa in the parlour, that they might hear him the more easily,
and then they sat quietly down to their sewing by the bright kitchen
fire. Sally was, as usual, the talker; and, as usual, the subject was
the family of whom for so many years she had formed a part.

"Aye! things was different when I was a girl," quoth she. "Eggs was
thirty for a shilling, and butter only sixpence a pound. My wage when
I came here was but three pound, and I did on it, and was always
clean and tidy, which is more than many a lass can say now who gets
her seven and eight pound a year; and tea was kept for an afternoon
drink, and pudding was eaten afore meat in them days, and the upshot
was, people paid their debts better; aye, aye! we'n gone backwards,
and we thinken we'n gone forrards."

After shaking her head a little over the degeneracy of the times,
Sally returned to a part of the subject on which she thought she had
given Ruth a wrong idea.

"You'll not go for to think now that I've not more than three pound
a year. I've a deal above that now. First of all, old missus gave me
four pound, for she said I were worth it, and I thought in my heart
that I were; so I took it without more ado; but after her death,
Master Thurstan and Miss Faith took a fit of spending, and says they
to me, one day as I carried tea in, 'Sally, we think your wages ought
to be raised.' 'What matter what you think!' said I, pretty sharp,
for I thought they'd ha' shown more respect to missus if they'd let
things stand as they were in her time; and they'd gone and moved the
sofa away from the wall to where it stands now, already that very
day. So I speaks up sharp, and, says I, 'As long as I'm content, I
think it's no business of yours to be meddling wi' me and my money
matters.' 'But,' says Miss Faith (she's always the one to speak first
if you'll notice, though it's master that comes in and clinches the
matter with some reason she'd never ha' thought of--he were always