er as Dick and she."

"When they be'n't too poor to have time to sing," said grandfather James.

"I tell ye, neighbours, when the pinch comes," said the tranter: "when
the oldest daughter's boots be only a size less than her mother's, and
the rest o' the flock close behind her. A sharp time for a man that, my
sonnies; a very sharp time! Chanticleer's comb is a-cut then, 'a
believe."

"That's about the form o't," said Mr. Penny. "That'll put the stuns upon
a man, when you must measure mother and daughter's lasts to tell 'em
apart."

"You've no cause to complain, Reuben, of such a close-coming flock," said
Mrs. Dewy; "for ours was a straggling lot enough, God knows!"

"I d'know it, I d'know it," said the tranter. "You be a well-enough
woman, Ann."

Mrs. Dewy put her mouth in the form of a smile, and put it back again
without smiling.

"And if they come together, they go together," said Mrs. Penny, whose
family had been the reverse of the tranter's; "and a little money will
make either fate tolerable. And money can be made by our young couple, I
know."

"Yes, that it can!" said the impulsive voice of Leaf, who had hitherto
humbly admired the proceedings from a corner. "It can be done--all
that's wanted is a few pounds to begin with. That's all! I know a story
about it!"

"Let's hear thy story, Leaf," said the tranter. "I never knew you were
clever enough to tell a story. Silence, all of ye! Mr. Leaf will tell a
story."

"Tell your story, Thomas Leaf," said grandfather William in the tone of a
schoolmaster.

"Once," said the delighted Leaf, in an uncertain voice, "there was a man
who lived in a house! Well, this man went thinking and thinking night
and day. At last, he said to himself, as I might, 'If I had only ten
pound, I'd make a fortune.' At last by hook or by crook, behold he got
the ten pounds!"

"Only think of that!" said Nat Callcome satirically.

"Silence!" said the tranter.

"Well, now comes the interesting part of the story! In a little time he
made that ten pounds twenty. Then a little time after that he doubled
it, and made it forty. Well, he went on, and a good while after that he
made it eighty, and on to a hundred. Well, by-and-by he made it two
hundred! Well, you'd never believe it, but--he went on and made it four
hundred! He went on, and what did he do? Why, he made it eight hundred!
Yes, he did," continued Leaf, in the highest pitch of excitement,
bringing down h