Just then she was startled at hearing her own name pronounced by a
hoarse voice, and, looking up, she beheld a tall young man standing at
the window. He had a somewhat gipsy look, having a dark olive
complexion, and fine black eyes, though set strangely in his head, like
those of Jennet and her mother, coal black hair, and very prominent
features, of a sullen and almost savage cast. His figure was gaunt but
very muscular, his arms being extremely long and his hands unusually
large and bony--personal advantages which made him a formidable
antagonist in any rustic encounter, and in such he was frequently
engaged, being of a very irascible temper, and turbulent disposition. He
was clad in a holiday suit of dark-green serge, which fitted him well,
and carried a nosegay in one hand, and a stout blackthorn cudgel in the
other. This young man was James Device, son of Elizabeth, and some four
or five years older than Alizon. He did not live with his mother in
Whalley, but in Pendle Forest, near his old relative, Mother Demdike,
and had come over that morning to attend the wake.
"Whot are ye abowt, Jennet?" inquired James Device, in tones naturally
hoarse and deep, and which he took as little pains to soften, as he did
to polish his manners, which were more than ordinarily rude and
churlish.
"Whot are ye abowt, ey sey, wench?" he repeated, "Why dunna ye go to t'
green to see the morris-dancers foot it round t' May-pow? Cum along wi'
me."
"Ey dunna want to go, Jem," replied the little girl.
"Boh yo shan go, ey tell ey," rejoined her brother; "ye shan see your
sister dawnce. Ye con sit a whoam onny day; boh May-day cums ony wonst a
year, an Alizon winna be Queen twice i' her life. Soh cum along wi' me,
dereckly, or ey'n may ye."
"Ey should like to see Alizon dance, an so ey win go wi' ye, Jem,"
replied Jennet, getting up, "otherwise your orders shouldna may me stir,
ey con tell ye."
As she came out, she found her brother whistling the blithe air of
"Green Sleeves," cutting strange capers, in imitation of the
morris-dancers, and whirling his cudgel over his head instead of a
kerchief. The gaiety of the day seemed infectious, and to have seized
even him. People stared to see Black Jem, or Surly Jem, as he was
indifferently called, so joyous, and wondered what it could mean. He
then fell to singing a snatch of a local ballad at that time in vogue in
the neighbourhood:--
"If thou wi' nah my secret tell,
Ne bruit abroad i' Whalley parish,
And swear to keep my counsel well,
Ey win declare my day of marriage."
"Cum along, lass," he cried stopping suddenly in his song, and snatching
his sister's hand. "What han ye getten there, lapped up i' your kirtle,
eh?"
"A white dove," replied Jennet, determined not to tell him any thing
about her strange dream.
"A white dove!" echoed Jem. "Gi' it me, an ey'n wring its neck, an get
it roasted for supper."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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