Jessica: You thought I was going to beg the question--didn't you, Martin? Martin: Put in your tongue, or-- Jessica: Or what? Martin: You know what. Jessica: I don't know what. Martin: Then you must take the consequences. And she took the consequences on both cheeks. Jessica: Oh! Oh, if I had guessed you meant that, do you suppose for a moment that I would have--? Martin: You dishonest dear. Jessica: I don't know what you mean. Martin: How crooked girls throw! She boxed his ears heartily and ran to her comrades. When she was perfectly safe she turned round and put out her tongue at him. Then they both lay down and went to sleep. Martin was wakened by water squeezed on his eyelids. He looked up and saw Joscelyn wringing out her little handkerchief in the pannikin. "Let us have no nonsense this morning," said she. "I like that!" mumbled Martin. "What's this but nonsense?" He sat up, drying his face on his sleeve. "What a silly trick," he said. "Rubbish," said Joscelyn. "Our master is due, and yesterday you overslept yourself and were troublesome. Go to your tree this instant." "I shall go when I choose," said Martin. "Maids! maids! maids!" "This instant!" said Joscelyn, and dipped her handkerchief in the pannikin. Martin crawled into the tree. "Is a dog got into the orchard, maids?" said Old Gillman, looking through the hedge. "What an idea, master," said Joscelyn. "I thought I seed one wagging his tail in the grass." The girls burst out laughing; they laughed till the apples shook, and Old Gillman laughed too, because laughter is catching. And then he stopped laughing and said, "Is an echo got into the orchard?" And the startled girls laughed louder than ever, and they grew red in the face, and tears stood in their eyes, and Joscelyn had to go and lean against the russet tree, where she stood frowning like a stepmother. "Tis well to be laughing," said Old Gillman, "but have ye heard my daughter laughing yet?" "No, master," said Jessica, "but I shouldn't wonder if it happened any day." "Any day may be no day," groaned Gillman, "and though it were some day, as like as not I'd not be here to see the day. For I'm drinking myself into my grave, as Parson warned me yesternight, coming for my receipt for mulled beer. Gillian!" he implored, "when will ye think better of it, and save an old man's life?" But for all the notice she took of him, he might have been the dog barking in his kennel. "Bitter bread for me, maids, and sweet bread for you," said the farmer, passing the loaves through the gap. "Tis plain fare for all these days. May the morrow bring cake." "Oh, master, please!" called Jessica. "I would like to know how Clover, the Aberdeen, gets on without me." "Gets on as best she can with Oliver," said Gillman, "though that fretty at times tis as well for him she's polled. Yet all he says is Patience.' But I say, will patience keep us all from rack and ruin?" And he went away shaking his head.