be so. Misanthropy in his
head, not in his heart.

_Enter the STRANGER and PETER, from the Hut._

_Pet._ Pray walk on.

_Stra._ [_To FRANCIS._] Fool!

_Fra._ So soon returned!

_Stra._ What should I do there?

_Fra._ Did you not find it as I said?

_Stra._ This lad I found.

_Fra._ What has he to do with your charity?

_Stra._ The old man and he understand each other perfectly well.

_Fra._ How?

_Stra._ What were this boy and the countryman doing?

_Fra._ [_Smiling, and shaking his head._] Well, you shall hear. [_To
PETER._] Young man, what were you doing in that hut?

_Pet._ Doing!--Nothing.

_Fra._ Well, but you couldn't go there for nothing?

_Pet._ And why not, pray?--But I did go there for nothing, though.--Do
you think one must be paid for every thing?--If Mrs. Haller were to give
me but a smiling look, I'd jump up to my neck in the great pond for
nothing.

_Fra._ It seems then Mrs. Haller sent you?

_Pet._ Why, yes--But I'm not to talk about it.

_Fra._ Why so?

_Pet._ How should I know? "Look you," says Mrs. Haller, "Master Peter,
be so good as not to mention it to any body." [_With much consequence._]
"Master Peter, be so good"--Hi! hi! hi!--"Master Peter, be so"--Hi! hi!
hi!--

_Fra._ Oh! that is quite a different thing. Of course you must be silent
then.

_Pet._ I know that; and so I am too. For I told old Tobias--says I,
"Now, you're not to think as how Mrs. Haller sent the money; for I shall
not say a word about that as long as I live," says I.

_Fra._ There you were very right. Did you carry him much money?

_Pet._ I don't know; I didn't count it. It was in a bit of a green
purse. Mayhap it may be some little matter that she has scraped together
in the last fortnight.

_Fra._ And why just in the last fortnight?

_Pet._ Because, about a fortnight since, I carried him some money
before.

_Fra._ From Mrs. Haller?

_Pet._ Ay, sure; who else, think you? Father's not such a fool. He says
it is our bounden duty, as christians, to take care of our money, and
not give any thing away, especially in summer; for then, says he,
there's herbs and roots enough in conscience to satisfy all the
reasonable hungry poor. But I say father's wrong, and Mrs. Haller's
right.

_Fra._ Yes, yes.--But this Mrs. Haller seems a strange woman, Peter.

_Pet._ Ay, at times she is plaguy odd. Why, she'll sit, and cry you a
whole day through, without any one's knowing why.--Ay, and yet, somehow