ery
tavern.

Well, well, a year had passed, and things were jogging very peaceful
like, and Keren settled down as quiet as a plough-broken mare, when one
day as I sit i' th' kitchen, while th' lass mends my apron, there comes
a fumbling at th' latch like as though a child made shift to open it.
Then quoth I, "Belike 'tis little Marjory Pebble, or one o' the Mouldy
lads over th' way;" for the babes all loved Keren, and, now that she was
waxed so quiet, th' lads left her more to herself, and she would sit on
th' bench by the cottage door and make little kickshaws by th'
hour--elder-wood whistles, and dolls o' forked radishes, and what not.
So quoth I, "Belike 'tis little Marjory Pebble," quoth I, and th' lass
having her lap full o' my apron, I went and opened th' door. And there,
comrade, a-kneeling in th' grass outside, with her head all hid in her
kirtle, as she had kneeled two years agone on t'other side o' that very
door, was Mistress Ruth Hacket; and she was a-sobbing as though her
heart would break. And while I stand staring, ere I could find a word
to my tongue, comes that lass o' mine and pushes me aside like as though
I had been little Marjory Pebble--ha! ha! And down goes she on her knees
beside th' lass, and gets an arm about her, and presses down her head,
all hid as 'tis in her kirtle, against her breast, and she saith to her,

"What troubles thee? Tell Keren, honey. So so! What troubles thee? Tell
Keren."

And from beneath her kirtle th' poor jade sobs out, "He's gone! he's
gone! he's gone! They've taken him to work on th' big seas--and our
child not yet born--and me so ailing; and, oh! I want to die! I want to
die!"

Then saith that lass o' mine, saith she, "Father, do thou fetch some o'
th' birch wine out o' th' cupboard and bring it to me in a cup;" and to
the girl she saith, "Come, then; come, then," like as though she had
been coaxing some little spring lambkin to follow her unto its dam; and
she half pulls and half carries th' wench into th' house, and seats her
on a low stool i' th' chimney-corner, and kneels down aside of her. And
when I be come with th' drink, she takes the cup out o' my hand, and
makes th' wench drink 't, holding it to her lips with one hand, while
with the other she cossets her hair and cheek. And, by-and-by, seeing
myself forgotten, I do withdraw into the room beyond, and wait till I be
called, that th' lasses may have 't out together.

Now, Ruth's folks were aye so poor th