"I daresay, Mr. Hoyle," interrupted the Chairman not apparently, displeased by these family reminiscences "but you shall tell me about that another time. About those hares, now." "Well, aw were sayin', when my missus deed--brownchitis aw think aw tell'd yo' it were--aw felt mortal lonesome like, all bi missen. Clack o' th' loom's all varry well, an' a sweet music for onnybody's ears, but when yo'n bin used to it for nigh on fifty year yo miss th' clack of a woman's tongue. So aw thowt aw mun ha' company o' some soort. Aw did think o' gettin' wed agen, an' there were a widder woman up bi Nont Sarah's 'at aw rother fancied. So aw kept mi e'en on her. Oo axed me to tea one Sunday after th' service, an' we'd some cheese to 't. Aw noticed oo cut th' rind off her cheese. Nah! a slut of a woman 'll eit th' cheese an' rind an' all, a wasteful one'll cut th' rind off, but a careful one'll pare it. So aw concluded oo were none for Enoch Hoyle." "So you took up with hares?" put in Mr. Blackburn, spying his chance. "Tha's getten it. Aw did think o' a cat. But, yo' see, yo' cannot eit cats, nor kitlings nother, though they do say 'at there's a chap i' Huthersfelt, at sells pork-pies 'at gets through a seet o' cats i' a varry mysterious fashion. But aw couldn't eit em missen, not knowingly. Though, to be sewer, if a Frenchman can eit a frog, aw dunnot see but what a felly might stomach a nice weel-fed kitling. But aw nivver han." "So you kept hares?" "Aye them two owd does theer be two o' my rearin', an' sorry aw were to part wi' 'em, but when it come to a matter o' confoundin' the ways o' the unrighteous, an' partickler when little Ruth yonder med a point on it, an' after aw'd takken it to the Lord i' prayer, an' when Mr. Holmes gay' me hawf-a-craan apiece for 'em, which were more nor aw cud reasonably expec' for owd uns awmost past breedin', aw seemed to see the pointin' hand o' Providence, an' so theer they be." "And how do you know they are the same couple I understand you sold to Mr. Holmes?" "Well, Ruth towd me …." "I'm afraid we cannot have what Ruth told you." "What for, no? Oo'd tell me nowt wrang, I'll go bail. Aw've sworn o' this blessed book to tell th' truth, th' whole truth, an' nowt but th' truth, an' awst noan lig easy o' mi bed this neet, if aw dunnot." "Oh! let him have his way. I'm sick of the case, anyway," put in Mr. Alison. "Well, Ruth told you?" "Well, Ruth said there wor' a plot o' th' part o' them two gamekeepers to catch Ephraim Sykes, Eph. o' th' Burnplatters, yo' know, i' an offence, an' oo'd set her brains to work to--what did oo ca' it. Guise-hong, my mem'ry 's noan what it used to be oh, frus, frus summat." "Frustrate, perhaps?" "Aye, that's th' verry word, tho' how yo' come to leet on it so clivver's beyond me. An' oo wanted to know if aw could sweer to 'em agen, tho' that wasn't th' word oo used--iden--iden--drat it all, it's slipped me again." "Identify, perhaps?"