ROBERT. There—I’d not change this for a thousand sacks of gold—I swear I’d not. KITTY. Now Robert—get up, the two of you. Are you bewitched or sommat—O Jerry, stir them, can’t you. LIZ. Robert, ’tisn’t hardly suitable—with the young miss so sweetly pretty in her white gown. JANE. And wedding veil and all. And sister and me hooked up into our new sprigs, ready for the ceremony. JEREMY. [_Looking at them with cold contempt_.] Let them bide. The mush’ll swim out of they same as ’twill swim off the cider vat. Just let the young fools bide. KITTY. O this’ll never do. Jerry forgetting of his manners and all. [_Calling at the garden door_.] John, John, come you here quickly, there’s shocking goings on. [JOHN, _in best clothes comes in_. JOHN. What’s the rattle now, Kitty? I declare I might be turning round on top of my own mill wheel such times as these. KITTY. Rose says she won’t wed Robert, and Robert’s gone off his head all along of that naughty servant maid. [JOHN _stands contemplating_ ROSE _and_ ROBERT. ROSE _seems lost to the outside world and is gazing with tears at her forget-me-nots_, _whilst_ ROBERT, _in sullen gloom_, _keeps his eyes fixed on the sun-bonnet_. JOHN. Come, Rose, ’tis time you commenced to act a bit different. [ROSE _does not answer_. JOHN. Come, Robert, if you play false to my sister at the last moment, you know with whom you’ll have to reckon like. [ROBERT _pays no heed to him_. JOHN. [_To_ JEREMY.] Can you do naught to work upon them a bit, Jerry? JEREMY. I’d have a jug of cider in, master. ’Twill settle them all. Folks do get ’sterical and vapourish face to face with matrimony. Put some drink afore of them, and see how ’twill act. LIZ. O what a wise thought, Master Jerry. JANE. Most suitable, I call it. [_Here_ MARY MEADOWS _comes in_, JOHN _turns eagerly to her_. JOHN. O Mary—have you come to help us in the fix where we are? [_He signs to_ ROSE _and_ ROBERT. MARY. What has happened, John? JEREMY. I’ll tell you in a couple of words, mistress. LIZ. No—do you fetch the cider, dear Mister Jeremy. JOHN. ’Tis more than I can do with, Mary. Rose is set against Robert, and Robert is set against Rose. Rose—well I’m fairly ashamed to mention it—Rose has lost her senses and would wed the servant William—and Robert is a-courting of the maid. JEREMY. Ah, let each fool follow their own liking, says I. LIZ. And sister and me all dressed in our new gowns for the church. JANE. And Jerry had to do the hooking for we, both of the servants having runned away. MARY. Well, now I’m here I’ll lend a hand. I’ll help with the dinner time you’re at church. You shall not need to trouble about anything, Mr. John. JOHN. O once I do get them to the church and the ring fixed and all I shan’t trouble about nothing, Mary. But ’tis how to move them from where they be! That’s the puzzle. ROSE. I’ll never move till the hand that gathered these flowers be here to raise me.