other sixpence I'd 've sworn you'd
never guv' me the paper at all; and so I will now, if it bean't too
late;--sixpence or no sixpence. What do I care? d---- them."

"Dan!"

"And why shouldn't I? They hain't got brains enough among them to
winny the truth from the lies,--not among the lot of 'em. I'll swear
afore the judge that you didn't give it me at all, if that'll do any
good."

"Man, do you think I would have you perjure yourself, even if that
would do me a service? And do you think that any man was ever served
by a lie?"

"Faix, among them chaps it don't do to tell them too much of the
truth. Look at that!" And he brought out the sixpence again from his
breeches-pocket. "And look at your reverence. Only that they've let
you out for a while, they've been nigh as hard on you as though you
were one of us."

"If they think that I stole it, they have been right," said Mr
Crawley.

"It's been along of that chap, Soames," said the woman. "The lord
would 've paid the money out of his own pocket and never said not a
word."

"If they think that I've been a thief, they've done right," repeated
Mr. Crawley. "But how can they think so? How can they think so? Have I
lived like a thief among them?"

"For the matter o' that, if a man ain't paid for his work by them as
is his employers, he must pay hisself. Them's my notions. Look at
that!" Whereupon he again pulled out the sixpence, and held it forth
in the palm of his hand.

"You believe, then," said Mr. Crawley, speaking very slowly, "that I
did steal the money. Speak out, Dan; I shall not be angry. As you go
you are honest men, and I want to know what such as you think about
it."

"He don't think nothing of the kind," said the woman, almost getting
out of bed in her energy. "If he'd athought the like o' that in his
head, I'd read 'un such a lesson he'd never think again the longest
day he had to live."

"Speak out, Dan," said the clergyman, not attending to the woman.
"You can understand that no good can come of a lie." Dan Morris
scratched his head. "Speak out, man, when I tell you," said Crawley.

[Illustration: "Speak out, Dan."]

"Drat it all," said Dan, "where's the use of so much jaw about it?"

"Say you know his reverence is as innocent as the babe as isn't
born," said the woman.

"No; I won't--say anything of the kind," said Dan.

"Speak out the truth," said Crawley.

"They do say, among 'em," said Dan, "that you picked it up, and then
got wool