when the
grape-gatherers indulged their rude wit on every one who came near.
Raillery and banter poured incessantly on Madge and Absalom, who replied
with equal freedom.

"Grin away," shouted Absalom at last, half pleased, half irritated, as
he stuck his prong in the ground, and seizing Madge, kissed her before
them all. "Thur--I bean't ashamed on her!"

"Ha! ha! ha! Hoorah!" shouted the men. Madge slipped away towards the
rear, blushing scarlet. So absorbed had they been as not to notice the
approach of another waggon coming in the opposite direction, which was
now alongside. Seeing the kiss and hearing the laugh, one of the men,
following it, shouted in a stentorian voice, for which he was renowned--

"Darn my buttons if I won't have one of they!"

In an instant he was over the wake and caught Madge in his arms. But she
struggled and cried. Absalom was there in a moment.

"Go it, Roaring Billy!" shouted the followers of the other waggon. But
Absalom shook him free, and the girl darted away. The two men stood
fronting each other. Absalom was angry. Billy had had a trifle too much
beer. A quarrel was imminent, and fists were doubled, when the pitchers
rushed up and separated them.

The last pitch was now flung up, and the women began to decorate the
horses and the waggons with green boughs.

"Come on, Madge," said Absalom, "we'll ride whoam;" and despite of much
feminine shyness and many objections, and after much trouble and
blushing and rude jokes about legs, Madge was hoisted up, and Absalom
followed her. To the rickyard they rode in triumph among green boughs,
and to the rude chorus of a song.

At seven that evening the whole gang were collected in the farmer's
great kitchen. A huge room it was, paved with stone flags, the walls
whitewashed, and the ceiling being the roof itself, whose black beams
were festooned with cobwebs. Three or four tables had been arranged in a
row, and there was a strong smell of "dinner" from smoking joints.
Absalom came in last. He had spent some time in adorning himself in a
white clean slop and new corduroys, with a gay necktie and his
grandfather's watch. His face shone from a recent wash. It was an open
countenance, which unconsciously prepossessed one in his favour.
Light-blue or grey eyes, which looked you straight in the face, were
overshadowed with rather thick eyebrows. His forehead was well
proportioned, and crowned with a mass of curling yellow hair. A
profusion of wh