MILES. [_Also offering his arm_.] I shall also give myself the pleasure of supporting Miss. JOAN. [_Taking an arm of each_.] O thank you, kindly gentlemen. Now we shall journey very comfortably, I am sure. [_They all set out walking in the direction of the farm_. ACT II.—Scene 1. _The kitchen of Ox Lease Farm_. _There are three doors_. _One opens to the staircase_, _one to the garden and a third into the back kitchen_. _At a table in the middle of the room_ EMILY _stands ironing some net window curtains_. JESSIE _and_ ROBIN _lean against the table watching her_. _By the open doorway_, _looking out on the garden_, _stands_ THOMAS, _a mug of cider in one hand and a large slice of bread in the other_. _As he talks_, _he takes alternate drinks and bites_. EMILY. [_Speaking in a shrill_, _angry voice_.] Now Thomas, suppose you was to take that there bread a step further away and eat it in the garden, if eat it you must, instead of crumbling it all over my clean floor. THOMAS. Don’t you be so testy, Emily. The dogs’ll lick the crumbs up as clean as you like presently. EMILY. Dogs? I’d like to see the dog as’ll shew its nose in here to-day when I’ve got it all cleaned up against the coming of fine young madam. THOMAS. [_Finishing his bread and looking wistfully at his empty hand_.] The little maid’ll take a brush and sweep up her daddy’s crumbs, now, won’t her? EMILY. I’ll give it to any one who goes meddling in my brush cupboard now that I’ve just put all in order against the prying and nozzling of the good-for-nothing baggage what’s coming along with your sister. ROBIN. What’s baggage, Mother? EMILY. [_Sharply_.] Never you mind. Get and take your elbow off my ironing sheet. JESSIE. [_Looking at her father_.] I count as you’d like a piece more bread, Dad? THOMAS. Well, I don’t say but ’twouldn’t come amiss. ’Tis hungry work in th’ hayfield. And us be to go without our dinners this day, isn’t that so, Emily? EMILY. [_Slamming down her iron on the stand_.] If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you twenty times, ’twas but the one pair of hands as I was gived at birth. Now, what have you got to say against that, Thomas? THOMAS. [_Sheepishly_.] I’m sure I don’t know. EMILY. And if so be as I’m to clean and wash and cook, and run, and wait, and scour, and mend, for them lazy London minxes, other folk must go without hot cooking at mid-day. THOMAS. [_Faintly_.] ’Twasn’t nothing cooked, like. ’Twas a bit of bread as I did ask for. JESSIE. [_Getting up_.] I’ll get it for you, Dad. I know where the loaf bides and the knife too. I’ll cut you, O such a large piece. EMILY. [_Seizing her roughly by the hand_.] You’ll do nothing of the sort. You’ll take this here cold iron into Maggie and you’ll bring back one that is hot. How am I to get these curtains finished and hung and all, by the time the dressed up parrots come sailing in, I’d like to know. [JESSIE _runs away with the iron_.