" he murmured
resignedly; "but I can't bid up against a rich man like Mr Rogers. . . .
You don't know what the creetur says?"

"No more'n Adam--only that it's too shockin' for human ears.
If Mr Rogers cares to take the bird for five shillin', he's welcome, and
good riddance. Only he won't never find out what's wrong with him."

"Honest?" asked Mr Rogers.

"Honest. I've lived alongside this bird seven years; he was bought off
a missionary; and _I_ don't know."

"Ah, well!" sighed Mr Philp. "Money can't buy everything. But I don't
mind bettin' I'd ha' found out."

"Would ye now?" queried Mr Rogers with a wicked chuckle. "I'll put up a
match, then. The bird's mine for five shillin': but Philp shall have
him for a month, and I'll bet Philp half-a-crown he don't discover what
you've missed. Done, is it?"

"Done.'" echoed Mr Philp, appealing to 'Bias and reaching out a hand for
the cage.

"Done!" echoed 'Bias. "Five shillin' suits me at any time, and I'm glad
to be rid o' the brute."

"There's one stippylation," put in Mr Rogers. "Philp must tell me
honest what he discovers. . . . You, Tabb's child, you're jogglin' my
chair again!"

So 'Bias, the five shillings handed over, went his way; relieved of one
burden, but not of the main one.

"Well, if I ever!" echoed Dinah, returning to the kitchen at Rilla.
"If that wasn't a masterpiece, and no mistake!"

"Is the bird gone?" asked her mistress. "Then you might fry me a couple
of sausages and lay breakfast in the parlour."

Dinah sighed. "'Tis lovely," she said, "to be able to play the fool
with men . . . 'tis lovely, and 'tis what women were made for. But 'tis
wasteful o' chances all the same. There goes two that'll never come
back."

"You leave that to me," said Mrs Bosenna, who had dried her eyes.
"Joke or no, you'll admit I paid them out for it. Now don't you fall
into sentiments, but attend to prickin' the sausages. You know I hate a
burst sausage."

BOOK III.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PLOUGHING.

It is possible--though not, perhaps, likely--that had Cai obeyed his
first impulse and pursued 'Bias down the valley, to overtake him, the
two friends might after a few hot words have found reconciliation, or at
least have patched up an honourable truce. As it was, 'Bias carried
home a bitter sense of betrayal, supposing that he had left Cai master
of the field. He informed Mrs Bowldler that he would dine and sup
alone.

"Which t