h
the scent of the honeysuckle which he had trained over the porch,
and listening to the chorus of linnets and finches from the copse
at the back of the house; he then set about the household duties,
which he always made it a point of honour to attend to himself on
Sundays. First he unshuttered the little lattice-window of the
room on the ground floor; a simple enough operation, for the
shutter was a mere wooden flap, which was closed over the window
at night and bolted with a wooden bolt on the outside, and thrown
back against the wall in the daytime. Any one who would could
have opened it at any moment of the night; but the poor sleep
sound without bolts. Then he took the one old bucket of the
establishment, and strode away to the well on the village green,
and filled it with clear, cold water, doing the same kind office
for the vessels of two or three rosy little damsels and boys, of
ages varying from ten to fourteen, who were already astir, and to
whom the winding-up of the parish chain and bucket would have
been a work of difficulty. Returning to the cottage, he proceeded
to fill his mother's kettle, sweep the hearth, strike a light,
and make up the fire with a faggot from the little stack in the
corner of the garden. Then he hauled the three-legged round table
before the fire, and dusted it carefully over, and laid out the
black Japan tea-tray with two delf cups and saucers of gorgeous
pattern, and diminutive plates to match, and placed the sugar and
slop basins, the big loaf and small piece of salt butter, in
their accustomed places, and the little black teapot on the hob
to get properly warm. There was little more to be done indoors,
for the furniture was scanty enough; but everything in turn
received its fair share of attention, and the little room, with
its sunken tiled floor and yellow-washed walls, looked cheerful
and homely. Then Harry turned his attention to the shed of his
own contriving, which stood beside the faggot-stack, and from
which expostulatory and plaintive grunts had been issuing ever
since his first appearance at the door, telling of a faithful and
useful friend who was sharp set on Sunday mornings, and desired
his poor breakfast, and to be dismissed for the day to pick up
the rest of his livelihood with his brethren porkers of the
village on the green and in the lanes. Harry served out to the
porker the poor mess which the wash of the cottage and the odds
and ends of the little garden affor