_Tummas_: Zum on um means to gie out and axe for a crownd more. Gwain to strike, doan't ee zee? _Rause_: A passel o' fools. _Tummas_: Arl on um ull join. They be going to begin at Mrs Estcourt's vust down to Greene Ferne. Her be sure to gie in to um, cos her's a 'ooman. _Rause_: Odd drot um! _Tummas_: I zay, Rause. _Rause_: Eez, you. _Tummas_: When be we a-goin to do it? _Rause_: What dost mean? _Tummas_: Up to church. _Rause_: Thee axe Bob vust--he'll mash thee. _Tummas_: I'll warm his jacket ef he puts a vinger on ee. Let's go up to paason. _Rause_: Get on with thee. Geoffrey heard a sound of struggling and two or three resonant kisses. _Tummas_: Wooll ee come? _Rause_: Go on whoam with thee. _Tummas_: Danged ef I'll stand it! I wunt axe thee no more! Look ee here! _Rause_: What's want? _Tummas_: Woot, or wootn't? Off went Rause at a run, and Tummas clattering after. Thought the listener, "Was ever the important question put in straighter terms? Woot, or wootn't? Will you, or won't you?" Tu-whit--tu-what! Steadily the scythe was swung, and the swathe fell in rows behind it. CHAPTER THREE. THE NETHER MILLSTONE. The huge water-wheel in the mill by Warren House went slowly round and round, grinding the corn. The ancient walls of the mill trembled under the ponderous motion, trembled but stood firm, as they had for centuries; so well did the monks see that their workmen mixed their mortar and dressed their stone in the days of the old world. A dull rumbling sound came from the chinks in the boarding that sheltered the wheel from the weather; a sound that could only be caused by an enormous mass in movement. Looking through into the semi-darkness, a heaving monster, black and direful, rolled continually past, threatening, as it seemed, to crush the life out of those who ventured within reach, as the stones within crushed form and shape out of the yellow wheat--the individual grain ground into the general powder. Yet the helpless corn by degrees wore away the solid adamant of its oppressor. Under the bowed apple-tree, clothed with moss, hard by, stood a millstone, grey and discoloured by the weather, thus rendered useless by the very corn it had so relentlessly annihilated.