JOHN. Ah, and a wonderful hard tongue when her knowed ’twasn’t for she as they was pulled. WILLIAM. Was t’other maid anything of the same pattern, John? JOHN. Upon my word, if t’other wasn’t the worst of the two, for she did put a powerful lot of venom into the looks as she did give I, and the words did fall from she like so many bricks on my head. WILLIAM. Pity the first was not the right maid. JOHN. Ah, a maid what can treat a prime home-cured jowl as yon did baint the sort for to mistress it over we, I’m thinking. MRS. GARDNER. See here, John—suppose you were to let your tongue bide still in its home awhile, and start doing something with your hands. JOHN. That’s right enough, mistress. What’s wanted, Master William? WILLIAM. I’m blessed if I can recollect, John. This courting business lies heavy on me, and I don’t seem able to get above it, like. JOHN. I’d let it alone, master, if I was you. They be all alike, the maids. And ’twouldn’t be amiss if we was to serve they as we serves the snails when they gets to the young plants. [SUSAN _comes hurriedly into the garden_. SUSAN. Please master, please mistress. MRS. GARDNER. What do you mean, Susan, by coming into the garden without your cap? Go and put it on at once. SUSAN. The wind must have lifted it from me, mistress, for I was running ever so fast. MRS. GARDNER. Do you expect me to believe that, Susan—and not a breath stirring the flowers or trees, or anything? SUSAN. ’Twas the lady I met as—as—as I was coming across the field from feeding the fowls. MRS. GARDNER. What lady, Susan? SUSAN. Her from Luther’s, mistress. JOHN. And what of she; out with it, wench. SUSAN. She did tell I to say as she be coming along as fast as she may after Master William. WILLIAM. [_As though to himself with an accent of despair_.] No. No. JOHN. There, master, didn’t I tell you so? WILLIAM. [_Very nervously_.] What did you tell me, John? JOHN. That, let her abide and her’d find the senses of she presently. WILLIAM. O I’m blessed if I do know what to do. [JOHN _takes his master’s arm and draws him aside_. JOHN. You pluck up your heart, my dearest master, and court she hard. And in less nor a six months ’tis along to church as you’ll be a-driving she. WILLIAM. But John, ’tis t’other with the cherry ribbons that has taken all my fancy. JOHN. No, no, Master William. You take and court the mistress. You take and tame the young vixen, and get the gold and silver from she. T’other wench is but the serving maid. SUSAN. The lady’s coming along ever so quickly, master. [MRS. GARDNER, _rising and folding up her knitting_.