"She've had a pretty long spell on't," quoth Dickons, after slowly emptying his mouth of smoke. "A hundred and two," replied the sexton; "so saith her coffin-plate--a' see'd it to-day." "What were her name?" inquired Tonson--"_I_ never knew her by any name but Blind Bess." "Her name be _Elizabeth Crabtree_ on the coffin," replied Higgs; "and she be to be buried to-morrow." "She were a strange old woman," said Hazel, one of the farmers, as he took down one of the oatcakes hanging overhead; and breaking off a piece, held it with the tongs before the fire to toast, and then put it into his ale. "Ay, she were," quoth Pumpkin; "I wonder what she thinks o' such things _now_--maybe--God forgive me!--she's paying dear for her tricks!" "Tut, Pumpkin," said Tonson, "let t'ould creature rest in her grave, where she's going to, peaceably!" "Ay, Master Tonson," quoth the clerk, in his reading-desk twang--"THERE _be no knowledge_, _nor wisdom_, _nor device_!" "'Tis very odd," observed Pumpkin, "but this dog that's lying at my feet never could a' bear going past her cottage late o' nights--hang me if he could; and the night she died--Lord! you should have heard the howl Hector gave--and a' didn't then know she were gone--it's as true as the gospel--it _is_--actually!" "No! but were't _really_ so?" inquired Dickons--several of the others taking their pipes out of their mouths, and looking earnestly at Pumpkin. "I didn't half like it, I can tell you," quoth Pumpkin. "Ha, ha, ha!--ha, ha!" laughed the gamekeeper-- "Ay, marry, you may laugh," quoth Pumpkin, "but I'll stake half-a-gallon o' ale you daren't go by yourself to the cottage where she's lying--_now_, mind--i' the dark." "_I'll_ do it," quoth Higgs, eagerly, preparing to lay down his pipe. "No, no--_thou'rt_ quite used to dead folk--'tis quite in thy line!" replied Pumpkin--and, after a little faint drollery, silence ensued for some moments. "Bess dropped off sudden like, at the last, didn't she?" inquired the landlord. "She went out, as, they say, like the snuff of a candle," replied Jobbins, one of the farmers; "no one were with her but my Missis at the time. The night afore, she had took to the rattles all of a sudden. My Sall (that's _done for_ her, this long time, by Madam's orders,) says old Bess were a good deal shaken by a chap from London, which cam' down about a week afore Christmas." "Ay, ay," quoth one, "I've heard o' that--what was it?--what passed atwixt them?" "Why, a' don't well know--but he seemed to know summat about t'ould girl's connections, and he had a book, and wrote down something, and he axed her, so Sall do tell me, such a many things about old people, and things that are long gone by!" "What were the use on't?" inquired Dickons; "for Bess hath been silly this ten years, to my sartin knowledge."