At this moment Mary inadvertently brushed against her, and in a moment the 'fancy' wife turned upon her like a spitfire. Clenching her fists and shouting vituperations, she tried to seize her by the hair. Foiled in this by an adroit swerve of Mary's under the 'stang,' she turned her fury upon Geordie's bearers, and with such success that to defend themselves they were forced to lower the pole to the ground. 'Noo, Geordie,' cried she, promptly thrusting the wooden weapon into his hands, 'mak' play wiv it, my man, ho-way,' and Geordie, realizing he was now free, lunged furiously in all directions, and scattered the crowd like chaff before him. Steered by his 'fancy' wife, a way grew clear about them, and Geordie marched slowly, unsteadily forward, bearing the 'stang' like a battering-ram straight in front of him, down the remaining length of the Row, accompanied at a respectful distance by a rabble of the smaller urchins. Right on past his house he went, out into the darkness beyond, and over the bridge at the end of the village, still tightly grasping the 'stang' himself, and tightly grasped in his turn by his 'fancy' wife. The last train to Oldcastle happened to pass above the bridge at that moment, and a head leant far out through a carriage window. 'Ay!' a clear voice sounded, with a touch of derision on the night air--'Ay! that's right, haud him tight, for he wants it badlies.' FOOTNOTES: [19] Mr. Brockett died in 1842. [20] The Northumberland Plate. YANKEE BILL AND QUAKER JOHN Quaker John was one of the best known figures in the small seaport town of Old Quay. Short of stature, heavy of tread, always quietly attired in a black suit, which varied not in cut from year to year; indeed, the same suit had once been known to do duty for three years together, till his wife one day, so 'twas said, handed them over to the chimney-sweep in mistaken identity. You might have told that he was of Puritan descent some yards away, but the 'letter of the law' in him had been softened down by the kindly genius of the old-fashioned Quaker. A genial twinkle lay in hiding at the back of his steadfast eye, and a smile was always 'at heel' beside his big and honest mouth. A broad and spectacled nose completed the portrait of one in whom the harmlessness as of a dove did not of necessity efface the wisdom of the serpent. At least, so said Yankee Bill, who read character 'at sight'; but then, Bill was a disciple of that cynical logic which proclaims not only all priests to be humbugs, but all men immersed in business who make pretensions to piety to be hypocrites or fools.