Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen ElizabethKingsley, Charles
History
Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth
Kingsley, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction
“Eh? Oh! I see. The pretty face has managed it a bit too well already,
eh? Tu many o' mun, pure fellows? Well, 'tain't every mayden has her
pick and choose, like some I know of, as be blest in love by stars
above. So you hain't made up your mind, then?”
Rose shook her head.
“Ah--well,” she went on, in a half-bantering tone. “Not so asy, is it,
then? One's gude for one thing, and one for another, eh? One has the
blood, and another the money.”
And so the “cunning woman” (as she truly was), talking half to herself,
ran over all the names which she thought likely, peering at Rose all the
while out of the corners of her foxy bright eyes, while Rose stirred the
peat ashes steadfastly with the point of her little shoe, half angry,
half ashamed, half frightened, to find that “the cunning woman” had
guessed so well both her suitors and her thoughts about them, and tried
to look unconcerned at each name as it came out.
“Well, well,” said Lucy, who took nothing by her move, simply because
there was nothing to take; “think over it--think over it, my dear life;
and if you did set your mind on any one--why, then--then maybe I might
help you to a sight of him.”
“A sight of him?”
“His sperrit, dear life, his sperrit only, I mane. I 'udn't have no
keeping company in my house, no, not for gowld untowld, I 'udn't; but
the sperrit of mun--to see whether mun would be true or not, you'd like
to know that, now, 'udn't you, my darling?”
Rose sighed, and stirred the ashes about vehemently.
“I must first know who it is to be. If you could show me that--now--”
“Oh, I can show ye that, tu, I can. Ben there's a way to 't, a sure way;
but 'tis mortal cold for the time o' year, you zee.”
“But what is it, then?” said Rose, who had in her heart been longing for
something of that very kind, and had half made up her mind to ask for a
charm.
“Why, you'm not afraid to goo into the say by night for a minute, are
you? And to-morrow night would serve, too; 't will be just low tide to
midnight.”
“If you would come with me perhaps--”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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