“Aye, that I did,” he answered with a
shrewdly significant air.
“Both of them?” suggested Mrs. Medlock.
“Both of ’em,” returned Ben Weatherstaff.
“Thank ye kindly, ma’am, I could sup up
another mug of it.”
“Together?” said Mrs. Medlock, hastily
overfilling his beer-mug in her excitement.
“Together, ma’am,” and Ben gulped
down half of his new mug at one gulp.
“Where was Master Colin? How did he look?
What did they say to each other?”
“I didna’ hear that,” said Ben,
“along o’ only bein’ on th’
step-ladder lookin’ over th’ wall.
But I’ll tell thee this. There’s been
things goin’ on outside as you house people
knows nowt about. An’ what tha’ll
find out tha’ll find out soon.”
And it was not two minutes before he swallowed the
last of his beer and waved his mug solemnly toward
the window which took in through the shrubbery a piece
of the lawn.
“Look there,” he said, “if tha’s
curious. Look what’s comin’ across
th’ grass.”
When Mrs. Medlock looked she threw up her hands and
gave a little shriek and every man and woman servant
within hearing bolted across the servants’ hall
and stood looking through the window with their eyes
almost starting out of their heads.
Across the lawn came the Master of Misselthwaite and
he looked as many of them had never seen him.
And by his side with his head up in the air and his
eyes full of laughter walked as strongly and steadily
as any boy in Yorkshire—Master Colin!
* * * *
*
Transcriber’s notes:
Table of Contents, an exclamation point was added
to Chapter VI’s title to match the text. (there
was!”)
Page 34, quotation mark added. (India,” said)
Page 62, apostrophe added to “an’”.
(readin’ an’)
Page 101, quotation mark added. (come to-morrow.”)
Page 117, comma changed to period. (she ventured.)
Page 163, extraneous quotation mark removed. (the
gardeners?)
Page 216, “it” changed to “if”.
(wondering if he)
Page 262, Illustration: Closing punctuation added.
(WIDE SMILE.”)
Page 272, period added. (he said.)
Page 284, apostrophe added. (Dickon. “An’)
Page 318, “every” changed to “very”.
(very easily)
Page 330, “eggs” changed to “Eggs”
to fit rest of text. (injurious to the Eggs)
