_Wheel._ So do I, ’faith! It was the best thing. I wanted, you see, to get him out of my way, that I might have the field clear for electioneering to-day. So I bowls up to him with a long face—such a face as this. Mr. Talbot, do you know—I’m sorry to tell you, here’s Jack Smith has just brought the news from Salt Hill. Your mother, in getting into the carriage, slipped, and has _broke_ her leg, and there she’s lying at a farmhouse, two miles off. Is not it true, Jack? said I. I saw the farmer helping her in with my own eyes, cries Jack. Off goes Talbot like an arrow. Quizzed him, quizzed him! said I. _Burs._ Ha! ha! ha! quizzed him indeed, with all his cleverness; that was famously done. _Wheel._ Ha! ha! ha! With all his cleverness he will be all the evening hunting for the farmhouse and the mother that has broke her leg; so he is out of our way. _Burs._ But what need have you to want him out of your way, now Lord John has come over to your side? You have the thing at a dead beat. _Wheel._ Not so dead either; for there’s a great independent party, you know; and if _you_ don’t help me, Bursal, to canvass them, I shall be no captain. It is you I depend upon after all. Will you come and canvass them with me? Dear Bursal, pray—all depends upon you. (_Pulls him by the arm—Bursal follows_.) _Burs._ Well, if all depends upon me, I’ll see what I can do for you. (_Aside_.) Then I am of some consequence! Money makes a man of some consequence, I see; at least with some folks. SCENE II. _In the back scene a flock of sheep are seen penned_. _In front_, _a party of country lads and lasses_, _gaily dressed_, _as in sheep-shearing time_, _with ribands and garlands of flowers_, _etc._, _are dancing and singing_. * * * * * _Enter_ PATTY, _dressed as the Queen of the Festival_, _with a lamb in her arms_. _The dancers break off when she comes in_, _and direct their attention towards her_. 1_st_ _Peasant_. Oh, here comes Patty! Here comes the Queen o’ the day. What has kept you from us so long, Patty? 2_nd_ _Peasant_. “_Please your Majesty_,” you should say. _Patty_. This poor little lamb of mine was what kept me so long. It strayed away from the rest; and I should have lost him, so I should, for ever, if it had not been for a good young gentleman. Yonder he is, talking to Farmer Hearty. That’s the young gentleman who pulled my lamb out of the ditch for me, into which he had fallen—pretty creature! 1_st_ _Peasant_. Pretty creature—or, your Majesty, whichever you choose to be called—come and dance with them, and I’ll carry your lamb. (_Exeunt_, _singing and dancing_.) _Enter_ FARMER HEARTY _and_ TALBOT. _Farmer_. Why, young gentleman, I’m glad I happened to light upon you here, and so to hinder you from going farther astray, and set your heart at ease like.