pinion: that he hadn't got any more than he deserved--if as
much.

No. V

WHEN FOX WAS FERRYMAN

We Dittisham folk live beside Dart river and at what you may call a
crossing. For there's a lot of people go back and forth over the water
between us and Greenway on t'other bank, and so the ferryman is an
important member of the community, and we often date things that happen by
such a man who reigned over the ferry at the time, just as we think of
what fell out when such a king reigned over the country.

And this curious adventure came to be when Fox was ferryman, and nobody
had better cause to remember it than old Jimmy Fox himself, for to him the
tale belongs in a manner of speaking, though you may be sure he wasn't the
man who used to tell it.

Jimmy Fox not only ran the ferry, but he was master of the 'Passage House'
inn, a public that stood just up top of the steps on the Dittisham
landing, and as this was the spot where passengers crossed, and there
weren't no beer at Greenway, they naturally took their last drink at the
'Passage House' before setting forth, and their first drink there on
landing. So it rose to be a prosperous inn enough. Mrs. Fox was the ruling
spirit there, because her husband spent most of his daytime working the
ferry boat; but Polly Fox--most people called her 'the Vixen' behind her
back--had two to help her in the shape of Christie Morrison, a niece of
her husband's, and Alice Chick, the barmaid--a good sort of girl enough.

Fox and his wife were a childless couple, and gave out they'd adopted
orphan Christie, and claimed a good deal of praise for so doing; but it
weren't a very one-sided bargain, after all, for she worked like a pony,
and proved more than worth her keep. In fact, there was little in her days
but work, and for a young pretty maiden not turned nineteen, there's no
doubt the toil and trouble of 'Passage House' and the money-grubbing
passion of her uncle and aunt were a depressing state of life.

But she enjoyed the eternal hope proper to youth and looked forward to a
home of her own some day, and better times when the right man came along.
She got a little fun into her work also, for the river was her delight,
and as Jimmy Fox, among his other irons in the fire, rented a salmon net
on Dart, Christie now and then had the pleasure of going out along with
the fishers, and spending a few hours on the river. But on these occasions
she was expected to work like a man and