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Only I didn't think you'd go to strike me, grandfather. 'I'll knock the life out of thee, if thou goest on this gate, he had said. But she had consented to come down, and they entered the room together. 'We're a disturbing you a'most too late, miss, said Mr Mixet. 'It ain't that at all, Mr Mixet. If grandfather chooses to have a few friends, I ain't nothing against it.
If you and Mr Crumb've come out to Sheep's Acre farm for a bit of supper 'Which we ain't, said John Crumb very loudly; 'nor yet for beer; not by no means. 'We've come for the smiles of beauty, said Joe Mixet. Ruby chucked up her head. 'Mr Mixet, if you'll be so good as to stow that! There ain't no beauty here as I knows of, and if there was it isn't nothing to you.
The Squire would be after her, and then John Crumb would come, accompanied of course by Mr Mixet, and after that, as she said to herself on retiring to the couch which she shared with two little Pipkins, 'the fat would be in the fire. 'Who do you think was at our place yesterday? said Ruby one evening to her lover.
'That's the chat, said Joe Mixet. 'There ain't nothing wanting in his house; is there, John? It's all there, cradle, caudle-cup, and the rest of it. A young woman going to John knows what she'll have to eat when she gets up, and what she'll lie down upon when she goes to bed. This he declared in a loud voice for the benefit of Ruby in the back kitchen. 'That she do, said John, grinning again.
And she gave her own account of that night on which John Crumb and Mr Mixet ate their supper at the farm, and of the manner in which her grandfather had treated her because she would not have John Crumb. Mrs Pipkin was a respectable woman in her way, always preferring respectable lodgers if she could get them; but bound to live. She gave Ruby very good advice.
The old man had slept off his anger and his beer while Ruby had been preparing the feast, and now roused himself to entertain his guests. 'What, Joe Mixet; is that thou? Thou'rt welcome. Come in, man. Well, John, how is it wi' you? Ruby's stewing o' something for us to eat a bit. Don't e' smell it? John Crumb lifted up his great nose, sniffed and grinned.
'Hark at that now, said John, looking at his friend almost with indignation. Mr Mixet, who was fully aware of his rare eloquence and of the absolute necessity there had been for its exercise if any arrangement were to be made at all, could not trust himself to words after this.
He was accompanied by his friend Joe Mixet, the baker of Bungay, who, as all Bungay knew, was to be his best man at his marriage. John Crumb's character was not without any fine attributes. He could earn money, and having earned it could spend and keep it in fair proportion. He was afraid of no work, and, to give him his due, was afraid of no man. He was honest, and ashamed of nothing that he did.
I don't know what business Mr Mixet has interfering along o' me. I never interfere along o' him. 'John Crumb, have you anything to say? asked the old man. Then John Crumb slowly arose from his chair, and stood up at his full height. 'I hove, said he, swinging his head to one side. 'Then say it. 'I will, said he. He was still standing bolt upright with his hands down by his side.
He put on his hat and walked out through the back kitchen into the yard declaring that his friend would find him there, round by the pigsty wall, whenever he was ready to return to Bungay. As soon as Mixet was gone John looked at his sweetheart out of the corners of his eyes and made a slow motion towards her, putting out his right hand as a feeler. 'He's aff now, Ruby, said John.
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