x or seven of his
teeth knocked out; glancing off to one side, he fell twenty feet more on
the hard rock, where he was picked up insensible. This man recovered,
however, under the careful nursing of his oft and sorely tried mother.

Maggot was present on this setting-day, with a new cap and a new blue
cloth coat, looking altogether a surprisingly respectable character. A
good deal of undertoned chaffing commenced when he appeared.

"Hallo!" exclaimed one, "goin' to become an honest man, Maggot?"

"Thinkin' 'bout it," replied the smith, with a good-humoured smile.

"Why, if I didn't knaw that the old wuman's alive," said another, "I'd
say he was agoin' to get married again!"

"Never fear," exclaimed a third, "Maggot's far too 'cute a cunger to be
caught twice."

"I say, my dear man," asked another, "have 'ee bin takin' a waalk 'pon
the clifts lately?"

"Iss, aw iss," replied the smith with much gravity.

"Did 'ee find any more daws 'pon clift?" asked the other, with a leer.

There was a general laugh at this, but Maggot replied with
good-humour,--"No, Billy, no--took 'em all away last time. But I'm
towld there's some more eggs in the nest, so thee'll have a chance some
day, booy."

"I hope the daws ain't the worse of their ducking?" asked Billy, with an
expression of anxious interest.

"Aw, my dear," said Maggot, looking very sad, and shaking his head
slowly, "didn't 'ee hear the noos?"

"No, not I."

"They did catch the noo complaint the doctor do spaik of--bronkeetis I
think it is--and although I did tie 'em up wi' flannel round their
necks, an' water-gruel, besides 'ot bottles to their feet, they're all
gone dead. I mean to have 'em buried on Monday. Will 'ee come to the
berryin, Billy?"

"P'raps I will," replied Billy, "but see that the gravedigger do berry
'em deep, else he'll catch a blowin' up like the gravedigger did in
Cambourne last week."

"What was that, booy? Let us hear about it, Billy," exclaimed several
voices.

"Well, this is the way of it," said Billy: "the owld gravedigger in
Cambourne was standin' about, after mittin' was over, a-readin' of the
tombstones, for he'd got a good edjication, had owld Tom. His name was
Tom--the same man as put a straw rope to the bell which the cows did eat
away, so that he cudn't ring the people to mittin'. Well, when he was
studdyin' the morials on the stones out comes Captain Rowe. He was wan
o' the churchwardens, or somethin' o' that sort,