table.

"Well!" said Mrs. Penny, flopping into a chair, "my heart haven't been in
such a thumping state of uproar since I used to sit up on old Midsummer-
eves to see who my husband was going to be."

"And that's getting on for a good few years ago now, from what I've heard
you tell," said the tranter, without lifting his eyes from the cup he was
filling. Being now engaged in the business of handing round
refreshments, he was warranted in keeping his coat off still, though the
other heavy men had resumed theirs.

"And a thing I never expected would come to pass, if you'll believe me,
came to pass then," continued Mrs. Penny. "Ah, the first spirit ever I
see on a Midsummer-eve was a puzzle to me when he appeared, a hard
puzzle, so say I!"

"So I should have fancied," said Elias Spinks.

"Yes," said Mrs. Penny, throwing her glance into past times, and talking
on in a running tone of complacent abstraction, as if a listener were not
a necessity. "Yes; never was I in such a taking as on that Midsummer-
eve! I sat up, quite determined to see if John Wildway was going to
marry me or no. I put the bread-and-cheese and beer quite ready, as the
witch's book ordered, and I opened the door, and I waited till the clock
struck twelve, my nerves all alive and so strained that I could feel
every one of 'em twitching like bell-wires. Yes, sure! and when the
clock had struck, lo and behold, I could see through the door a little
small man in the lane wi' a shoemaker's apron on."

Here Mr. Penny stealthily enlarged himself half an inch.

"Now, John Wildway," Mrs. Penny continued, "who courted me at that time,
was a shoemaker, you see, but he was a very fair-sized man, and I
couldn't believe that any such a little small man had anything to do wi'
me, as anybody might. But on he came, and crossed the threshold--not
John, but actually the same little small man in the shoemaker's apron--"

"You needn't be so mighty particular about little and small!" said her
husband.

"In he walks, and down he sits, and O my goodness me, didn't I flee
upstairs, body and soul hardly hanging together! Well, to cut a long
story short, by-long and by-late, John Wildway and I had a miff and
parted; and lo and behold, the coming man came! Penny asked me if I'd go
snacks with him, and afore I knew what I was about a'most, the thing was
done."

"I've fancied you never knew better in your life; but I mid be mistaken,"
said Mr. Penny in a murmur.