Once off the road above the Workhouse I went in a bee-line for Pots and Pans, that cluster of huge boulders, black with age, and worn by the countless storms they had weathered since first the morning stars sang together--Jim said they had been left on their exalted bed after being bundled about by the Flood before the waters subsided and stranded Noah on Ararat: but, then, Jim had also a theory, in support of which he advanced many cogent arguments, that the huge rocks that cap the hills on either side of the valley-head at Bill's 0' Jack's had been used as missiles when Gog stood on one hill and hurled them across the intervening ravine in some titanic contest with Magog--else why, he shrewdly asked, were these summits dubbed Gog and Magog to this day; there _must_ be a reason for it and what so likely as that. Idly revolving many and various thoughts I at length crossed the great steep, somewhat blown, and fain to doff my cap and let the cooling breeze blow about my brow. I sat down in the shadow of one of the crags, against which I stretched my long legs in great ease and content, and what with the warmth and the pleasant weariness of my stiff climb, I presently nodded off to sleep. How long I sat there I cannot say, but when I woke, which fortunately I did gradually and without the start one gives when the buzzer goes, wakefulness coming gently and quietly, as daybreak lifting the clouds, I became aware that I had no longer Pots and Pans to myself; and the consciousness that I was trespassing, and the knowledge that trespassers were ill-brooked when the grouse were about, suggested that if I had not as yet been observed 'twere just as well not to obtrude my presence. So I closed my eyes and lay low. But I kept my ears open. "It's no use thee talkin', feyther, I'm bent on it," I heard, "so tha may as well keep thi breath to cool thi porridge. I'st ha' that lass if aw dee for it." "What dost ta mean? Tha cannot wed her, and if tha could tha'd be a fooil to put a rope raand thee nah. Tha'd rue it nobbut once, Tom, an' that'd be all thi life after th' fust week or two. "Aw said nowt abaat weddin' her. Aw sud think twice afore I put a ring on to a Burnplatter's finger." "Tha'rt none talkin' o' that black-haired wildcat o' a gipsy wench tha gate sich a mauling ovver at th' Wakes?" "Aye, but I am." "Well, everyone to his fancy, as th' woman said when 'oo kissed th' now. By gow, lad, thou'lt have a handful wi' yon spitfire. 'Oo'd knife thee as soon as look at thee, if tha crossed her. More bi token tha'll have all th' Burnplatter's to reckon wi if owt went wrong. They all hang together, aw'll say that for 'em. An' what does th' lass say to 't?" "Winnot look th' side o' th' road aw'm on. Treats me as if aw were th' dirt under her feet. Starts off like a filly if 'oo sees mi shadow."