I come, I
can tell 'ee."

"Well, they'd stay a very long time before they'd be fetched by me,"
said Eve emphatically.

"Awh, don't 'ee say that, now," returned Joan. "Where do 'ee think
there'd be the most harm in, then--sittin' comfortable at home when you
might go down and 'tice 'em away, or the goin' down and doin' of it?"

"I've not a bit of patience with anybody who drinks," exclaimed Eve,
evading a direct answer.

"Then you'll never cure anybody of it, my dear," replied Joan. "You'm
like Adam there, I reckon--wantin' to set the world straight in one day,
and all the folks in it bottommost side upward; but, as I tell un, he
don't go to work the right way. They that can't steer 'ull never sail;
and I'll bet any money that when it comes to be counted up how many
glasses o' grog's been turned away from uncle's lips, there'll be more
set to the score o' my coaxin' than ever 'ull be to Adam's
bullyraggin'."

"Perhaps so," said Eve; and then, wishing to avoid any argument into
which Adam could be brought, she adroitly changed the subject, and only
indifferent topics were discussed until, their dressing completed, the
two girls were ready to go down stairs.

The first person who answered the summons to breakfast was Uncle
Zebedee--not heavy-eyed and shamefaced, as Eve had expected to see him,
but bright and rosy-cheeked as an apple. He had been up and out since
six o'clock, looking after the repairs which a boat of his was laid up
to undergo, and now, as he came into the house fresh as a lark, he
chirruped in a quavery treble,

"Tom Truelove woo'd the sweetest fair
That e'er to tar was kind:
Her face was of a booty rare--

That's for all the world what yourn is," he said, breaking off to bestow
a smacking kiss on Joan. "So look sharp, like a good little maid as you
be, and gi'e us sommat to sit down for;" and he drew a chair to the
table and began flourishing the knife which had been set there for him.
Then, catching sight of Eve, whose face, in her desire to spare him,
betrayed an irrepressible look of consciousness, he exclaimed, "Why,
they've bin tellin' up that I was a little over-free in my speech last
night about you, Eve: is there any truth in it, eh? I doan't fancy I
could ha' said much amiss--did I?"

"Oh, nothing to signify, uncle."

"'Twas sommat 'bout you and Adam, warn't it?" he continued with a
puzzled air: "'tis all in my head here, though I can't zackly call it to
mind. That's