but
with nothing to her but the clothes on her back. You've no call to be
leading a maid toall yet. S'pose you was ever master of Cloom, what
would you be wanting with Jenifer Keast?"

"Master o' Cloom! That's plum foolishness. We all d'knaw I'd be master
o' Cloom if right were right, but there's the law siden' wi' the cheild;
devil run off wi' en!"

"If the devil don't somebody else might," said Tom, "and then Cloom'd be
mother's and ours. Eh, I wish I was the eldest; I'm the only one with a
headpiece on me."

"Th' cheild's healthy enough," grumbled Archelaus.

"My children are all healthy; I never buried but the one between Tom and
John-James and the one as never drew breath," interrupted Annie, "and if
the cheild is set up by the law he's your own flesh and blood. He would
have been as fine a cheild as any of 'ee if he'd kept his place."

"I'm not saying nothing against the brat," cried Tom in exasperated
tones; "anyone'd think I wanted'n to die by the way you go on at me. I
don't--it don't matter to me, for I'm going to be a lawyer like Mr.
Tonkin to Penzance, but Archelaus'll be a fool if he don't look higher
than Jenifer Keast."

"I'm not looken' to lead no maid," cried the badgered Archelaus,
snatching the light. "Do 'ee grudge a chap a kiss or two? What's the harm
in kissen'? You knew all about it when you was young, mother; you're a
nice one to talk to a chap, you are!"

With which unfilial gibe he disappeared.

Annie was one of those women who like a buffet, verbal or physical, from
a man, whether he be husband, brother, or son. She looked after
Archelaus with pride.

"He be rare and like his da when he's got the uglies," she said; "he'll
look fine at the head o' the table to-night, will Arch'laus."

"Parson Boase'll put Ishmael at the head of the table," announced Tom
carelessly, with a sly glance at his mother. Annie whipped round at him
in blank surprise, while even John-James paused in his washing-up and
stood gaping over a dish.

"Gwain to put my own cheild auver my head and the head of my first-born,
is 'ee?" cried Annie. "Eh, that passon! Sim'me he's lacken' his senses!
Sim'me that when the law lets a man like that come shoven' and meddlen'
in a woman's house that the law's lacken' its senses too!"

"Don't fret about the law," advised Tom; "I've heard tell the law can be
turned any way a clever chap has a mind. I'll see what I can do with it
when I'm to Mr. Tonkin, and then perhaps we'll