better, and got
agate wi' the housewark. But, by the mass! it was a dree day for me, was
yon. Ivery time I heerd the owd man hoast I thought he were boun' to
dee. But he was better that day nor he'd been for a long while, and he
kept mending all the time. I couldn't forget, howiver, what I'd done,
and the thought of how I'd yielded to the devil's ticement made me more
patient and gentle wi' Jerry nor iver I'd been afore.

"Spring set in and the birds came back frae beyont the sea, swallows and
yallow wagtails and sandpipers; the meadows were breet wi' paigles, and
the childer gethered bluebells and lilies o' the valley i' the woods for
Whissuntide, and iverything went on same as afore. We had a good lambing
time, and a good hay harvest at efter. I kept Jerry under my eye all the
while, and nowt went wrang wi' him. He'd get about the farm wi' the
dogs, a bit waffy on his legs, mebbe, but his appetite kept good, and
he'd ommost lossen his hoast. He fratched and threaped same as usual if
owt went wrang wi' his meals, or if the childer made ower mich racket i'
the house, but it took a vast o' care off my mind to think that he could
get about and go down to 'The Craven Heifer' for his forenoon drinkings,
same as he'd allus done sin first I came into Wharfedale as Mike's
bride. And when back-end set in and we'd salved the sheep wi' butter and
tar to keep the winter rain out on 'em, still Owd Jerry kept wick and
cobby, and there were days, aye, and weeks too, when I forgot what I'd
done on Ash-Riddling Day. And when I thought about it, it didn't flay me
like it used to do; for I said to misen, 'I'll keep Owd Jerry alive
ovver next St Mark's Day, choose how.' So I knitted him a muffler for
his throat and lined his weskit wi' flannen; I brewed him hot drinks
made out o' herbs I'd gethered i' the hedgerows i' summertime, and
rubbed his chest wi' a mixture o' saim frae the pig-killing, and honey
frae the bee-skeps. Eh! mon, but it were gey hard to get the owd man to
sup the herb tea and to let me rub him. He reckoned I wanted to puzzum
him same as if he were a ratton, and when I'd putten the saim and honey
on his chest he said I'd lapped him up i' fly-papers. But I set no count
on his nattering so long as I could keep him alive.

"Chrissamas came at last, and New Year set in wi' frost and snow. The
grouse came down frae the moors and the rabbits fair played Hamlet about
the farms: they were that pined wi' hunger, they began to ea