Scrooby village were not
interesting. There was very little squalor or degradation; their poverty
seemed not a descent, but a condition to which they had been born; the
faces which Sadie saw were dulled and apathetic rather than sullen
or rebellious; they stood up when Miss Amelyn entered, paying HER the
deference, but taking little note of the pretty butterfly who was with
her, or rather submitting to her frank curiosity with that dull consent
of the poor, as if they had lost even the sense of privacy, or a right
to respect. It seemed to the American girl that their poverty was more
indicated by what they were SATISFIED with than what she thought they
MISSED. It is to be feared that this did not add to Sadie's sympathy;
all the beggars she had seen in America wanted all they could get, and
she felt as if she were confronted with an inferior animal.

"There's a wonderful old man lives here," said Miss Amelyn, as they
halted before a stone and thatch cottage quite on the outskirts of
the village. "We can't call him one of our poor, for he still works,
although over eighty, and it's his pride to keep out of the poorhouse,
and, as he calls it, 'off' the hands of his granddaughters. But we
manage to do something for THEM, and we hope he profits by it. One of
them is at the Priory; they're trying to make a maid of her, but her
queer accent--they're from the north--is against her with the servants.
I am afraid we won't see old Debs, for he's at work again to-day, though
the doctor has warned him."

"Debs! What a funny name!"

"Yes, but as many of these people cannot read or write, the name is
carried by the ear, and not always correctly. Some of the railway
navvies, who come from the north as he does, call him 'Debbers.'"

They were obliged to descend into the cottage, which was so low that it
seemed to have sunk into the earth until its drooping eaves of thatch
mingled with the straw heap beside it. Debs was not at home. But his
granddaughter was there, who, after a preliminary "bob," continued the
stirring of the pot before the fire in tentative silence.

"I am sorry to find that your grandfather has gone to work again in
spite of the doctor's orders," said Miss Amelyn.

The girl continued to stir the pot, and then said without looking
up, but as if also continuing a train of aggressive thoughts with her
occupation: "Eay, but 'e's so set oop in 'issen 'ee doan't take orders
from nobbut--leastways doctor. Moinds 'em n