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But his valor was not put to the proof, for Tommy Green molested her no more. Jan washed his face in the water-meadows, and went stout-heartedly home, where Master Lake beat him afresh, as he ironically said, "to teach him to vight young varments like himself instead of minding his book." But upon Master Chuter, of the Heart of Oak, the incident made quite a different impression.
The curiosity of the company was by this time aroused, and Master Chuter explained: "'Tis a gentleman by the name of Ford as is advertising for a pocket-book, a seems to have lost on the downs, near to Master Lake's windmill. 'Tis thy way, too, Gearge, after all. Thee must get up yarly, Gearge. 'Tis the yarly bird catches the worm.
It was Master Chuter's little daughter, a pretty child, with an oval, dainty- featured face, and a prim gentleness about her, like a good little girl in a good little story. The intervening young rustics began to nudge each other and look back at her. "Kitty Chuter be crying!" they whispered.
It drives the "messengers" over the sky, and the sails of the windmill, and makes the dead leaves dance upon the graves. It does much to dispel the evil effects of the foul smells and noxious gases, which are commoner yet in the little village than one might suppose. It rocks Jan's sign in mid-air above the Heart of Oak, where Master Chuter is waiting upon a newly arrived guest.
There was that advertisement, you remember that about the five-pound bill in the paper, Daddy Angel?" "Ay, ay, Master Chuter," said Daddy Angel; "after the big storm, five year ago. Sartinly, Master Chuter." "Was it ever found, do ye think?" said Master Linseed, the painter and decorator.
Master Chuter winked the little eye buried in his fat left cheek. "I knows the schoolmaster, Jan. He be mortal proud; and I wouldn't offend he, sartinly not, Jan. But Master Swift and me have seen a deal of each other since you left, and he've tasted this port before, when he were so bad, and he'll not take it amiss from an old friend." Master Chuter was right.
And when school's done, I'll whop Tommy Green, if I sees him." And forthwith, without looking from the door for studies, Jan drew a fat sow with her little ones about her; the other children clustering round to peep, and crying, "He've made Kitty Chuter one, two, three, vour, VIVE pigs!" "Ah, and there be two more you can't see, because the old un be lying on 'em," said Jan. "Six, seven!"
Master Chuter provided him with sheets of thick whitey-brown paper, on which he made water-color studies, from which he painted afterwards. By his desire no one was admitted to the tallet, though Master Chuter's delight increased with the progress of the picture till the secret was agony to him.
Jan finished off the tail of the pig he was drawing with a squeak of the pencil that might have come from the pig itself and, stuffing the slate into its owner's hands, he ran up to Kitty Chuter and kissed her wet cheeks, saying, "Give I thee slate, Kitty Chuter, and I'll make thee the best pig of all. I don't want nothing from thee for 't.
Jan was far too glad of this seasonable addition to the feast to suggest doubts of its acceptance; indeed, he ventured on a hint about a possible lack of wine-glasses, which Master Chuter quickly took, and soon filled up his basket with ancient glasses on bloated legs, a clean table-cloth, and so forth. "We needn't say any thing about the glasses," suggested Jan, as they drew near the cottage.
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