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For Kirby knew, as did every Dalesman, that the old dog slept in the porch, between the two doors of the house, of which the outer was only loosely closed by a chain, so that the ever-watchful guardian might slip in and out and go his rounds at any moment of the night.
Mary Carvel would give her vote for the Dalesman, and Chrysophrasia for Plato, but I have not consulted them; and if I do not consult you, it is because I think I understand your tastes.
"Cannot that lass's father earn aught without keeping yon sulking waistrel about him?" asked the old dalesman one day. It was the first time he had spoken of Wilson since the threatened ducking. Being told of Wilson's violence to Rotha, he only said, "It's an old saying, 'A blate cat makes a proud mouse." Angus was never heard to speak of Wilson again.
"Some barn to be christened afore the service, Liza?" called another young dalesman after her, with the memory of the girl's enjoyment of a similar ceremony not long before. Liza heeded neither the questions nor the banter.
Then there was a good deal of confused, and not a little passionate discussion, which waxed louder and more vehement until Guttorm Stoutheart stood up, and, although not a dalesman, requested the attention of the assembly for a few minutes. The only thing that concerns us, it seems to me, is the manner in which we shall convey our opinion to the King how we shall best, as the scald says:
Sometimes on market days he would execute some unaccountable maneuvre, and... strange shepherd would ask: "What's the gray dog at?" To which the nearest Dalesman would reply: "Nay, I canno tell ye! But he's reet enough. Yon's Owd Bob o' Kenmuir." Whereon the stranger would prick his ears and watch with close attention.
The dalesman had caught Sim's drift, and with his old trick of manner, more expressive than his words, he had put his hand on Sim's arm. "And now there is but one chance that has made it quite worth the while that we should have talked frankly on the subject, you and I, and that is the chance that others may come to do what Wilson tried to do.
Sim was an old man, or at least he was past his best. He was a frail creature, unable to travel fast. There was little doubt in the mind of the lusty young dalesman as he took his "lang stroke o' the ground" that before many hours had gone by Sim would be overtaken and brought back.
He had a fine face, of the older New England type, clean-shaven and strong-featured, a type that is fast passing away. He might have been a Cumberland dalesman, such were his dignity, and self-possession, and English soberness of manner. His large frame was built for hard work, for lifting great weights and pushing his plough through new-cleared land.
Robbie alternately whispered, "It was north of the bridge," and chuckled, "Ah, ah! there's Garth, Garth but I downed him, the dummel head!" The little dalesman relinquished as hopeless all further attempt at rational converse, and gave himself the solemn assurance, conveyed to his acute intelligence by many grave shakes of the head, that "summat was ailin' the lad, after all."
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