the thing as was
right. I talked it over with the minister; and I made up my mind as I'd
come home again and find you out."

Then he told them of his voyage back to England, and of his landing with
his master at Liverpool.

"Well, then," he proceeded, "as soon as I could be spared I went over to
Langhurst. I went to our old place and opened the door. There were
none but strange faces. `Where's Thomas Johnson?' says I. `Who do ye
say?' says a woman as was by the hearth-stone. `Thomas Johnson? he
don't live here.' `Where does he live then?' says I again. `There's
nobody o' that name in Langhurst,' says the woman. It were night when I
got there, so I wasn't noticed. Then I went to old Anne Butler's, and I
thought I'd not say who I were, for I were always a closeish sort o'
chap; and if fayther and our Betty had flitted, I didn't want to have
all the village arter me. So I just went to old Anne's. She didn't
know me a bit. So I got talking about the village, and the folks as had
come and gone; and I let her have her own way. So she goes from t'one
to t'other, till at last she says, `There's poor Tommy Johnson, as used
to live in the stone row; he's flitted with his wench Betty, and nobody
knows where they've gone.' `That's strange,' says I, `what made 'em
flit that fashion?' `Oh,' she says, `they'd a deal of trouble. Thomas
wasn't right in his head arter his lad Sammul went off, so he took up
with them Brierleys, and turned teetotaller; and then his missus,'--but
I canna tell ye what she said about poor mother. I were fair upset, ye
may be sure, when she told me her sad end; but old Anne were so full of
her story that she didna heed anything else. Then she said, `Many of
his old pals tried to turn poor Tommy back, but they couldn't, but they
nearly worritted him out of his life. So one night Tommy and his Betty
went clean off, and nobody's heard nothing no more on 'em, nor of their
Sammul neither; and what's strangest thing of all, when they came to
search the house arter it were known as Tommy had flitted, they found
some great letters sticking to the chamber-floor in black and red; they
was verses out of the Bible and Testament. The verse in black were, "No
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God;" t'other verse, in red, were,
"Prepare to meet thy God." Some thought as the old lad had put 'em
there; other some said, "The old lad's not like to burn his own tail in
the fire." Howsever, verses were