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Updated: May 13, 2025
Thence the old man went out into the village, and his first halt was at the forge, where Blane, who had grown a great deal stouter and more grizzled, started at sight of his square cap. "Eh! but 'tis the old minister! You have come in quietly, sir! I am afraid your reverence has but a sorry welcome." "I do not wonder you are grieved to part with Master Woodley."
"Thir kittle times will drive the wisest o' us daft," said Niel Blane, the prudent host of the Howff; "but I'se aye keep a calm sough. Jenny, what meal is in the girnel?" "Four bows o' aitmeal, twa bows o' bear, and twa bows o' pease," was Jenny's reply.
Truly, though cynically, wrote Sir Gilbert Blane, 'If superior beings make a sport of the quarrels of mortals, they could not have chosen a better theatre for this magnificent exhibition, nor could they ever have better entertainment than this day afforded.
This invitation was peculiarly acceptable to Niel Blane, who, if he did not positively expect it from every guest not provided with better company, yet received it from many, and was not a whit abashed or surprised at the summons.
Blane whistled with dismay at the sight of it, and told Stead he could not take the children to such a place. "We will get it better," said Stead. "That we will," returned Patience, who felt anything better than being separated from her brother. "It is weather-tight," added Stead, "and when it is cleaned out you will see!" "And the soldiers will never find it," added Patience.
"Here, give 's a drop o' summat; I'm as dry inside as a biscuit-bag." And my lips and throat felt dry too with excitement, while a strange feeling of despair came over me. Walters, Bob Hampton, Dumlow, and Blane all turned traitors. What was to become of the poor passengers, the officers, and myself? There was only one way out of the difficulty, and that was to join the prisoners in the cabin.
"Yes, my lads, Hampton, Dumlow, and Blane have been fighting for us all through." "Oh, that's it, is it?" said the man. "Very well. Anything for a quiet life, I says; on'y how much longer are we to be at the wheel?" "I'll have you relieved soon, my men, so do your best, and keep easing her off another point or two now and then."
The vexation was that all the manor was called to give their three days' labour to Lady Elmwood's crops just as all their own were cut, and as, of course, Master Brown had chosen the finest weather, every one went in fear and trembling for their own, and Oates and others grumbled so bitterly at having to work without wage, that Blane asked if they called their own houses and land nothing.
At another table, at some distance, sat two of the dragoons, whom Niel Blane had mentioned, a sergeant and a private in the celebrated John Grahame of Claverhouse's regiment of Life-Guards.
Betty Blane, Erica Peters, and Peggy Collins, comparing injured notes, viewed the matter from a different angle. "Calls herself a mother, does she? Jolly more like a step-mother, I should say," objected Erica. "Pretty grizzly to be boxed up with Hilary for a whole term," lamented Betty. "I'm not going to be 'mothered' by her," proclaimed Peggy with energy.
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