down on it."

She brought some more ale at the request of the seaman, and as
she set down the tankard said:

"I won't be so bold as to say it's in Scriptur', but it's in
the Psalm-book I dare swear. Mother, she were a tip-top tearin'
religious woman, and she used to say it to me when I was younger
than I be now:--

"'They flies in clouds and flap their shrouds
When full the moon doth shine;
In dead of night when lacketh light,
We here 'em pipe and pine.

"'And many a soul wi' hoot and howl
Do rattle at the door,
Or rave and rout, and dance about
All on a barren moor.'

"And it goes on somehow like this. You can think on it as you go
over Hind Head in the dark:

"'Or at the winder wail and weep,
Yet never venture nigher;
In snow and sleet, within to creep
To warm 'em at the fire.'"

The child began to cry in the adjoining room.

"There," said the landlady, "'tis awake she is, poor mite without
a name, and not as much Christianity as could make a cat sneeze.
If that there child were to die afore you got to Portsmouth and
had her baptized, sure as my name is Susanna Verstage, I'd never
forgive myself, and I'd hear her for sure and certainty at the
winder. I'm a motherly sort of a woman, and there's a lot o' them
poor wanderers comes piping about the panes of an evening. But I
can do nothing for them."

"Now then, lads, let's be moving," said the mariner.

The three men at the table rose; and when standing exposed more of
their raggedness and the incongruity of their apparel than was
shown when they were seated.

The landlady reluctantly surrendered the child.

"A babe," said she, "mustn't be shaken after feeding;" then, "a
babe mustn't be allowed to get its little feet cold, or gripes
comes;" then, "you must mind and carry it with the head to your
shoulder, and away from the wind." Presently another item occurred
to the good woman, as the men left their places at the table: "You
must hold the child on your arm, between the wrist and the
elbow-jint."

As they went to the door she called, "And never be without a drop
o' dill water: it's comforting to babies."

As they made their exit--"And when nussin', mind, no green meat
nor fruit."

When all had departed the landlady turned to the man by the fire,
who still wore his sarcastic smirk, and said "Bideabout! What do
you think of they?"

"I think," answered the Broom-Squire, "that I never saw three
suc