rches upon my knee (as
sometimes thou shalt see a hawk rest wings on a bull's back), and she
kittles my throat with her long brown fingers, and hugs me about the
neck (the jade! a knew I was for scolding her), and saith she, "Well,
father, here be I." Methinks I can hear her say it now, as soft as any
little toddler come for a kiss. "Here be I," she saith; and with that
she fills all my face with her curls (the jade! a saw that in my eye
which a did not care to face). "Here be I," saith she.

"Ay," saith I, speaking in a gruff voice; "and now that here thou be,"
saith I, "I'll tell thee what I want of thee."

"Thou canst want naught that I will not do," saith she. (The jade! a had
a way with her to 'a' made Bess herself yearn for matrimony.) But I was
stanch; I was stanch, comrade. Saith I,

"Methinks thy mother was right to speak to thee as yesternight she did,"
saith I; "for I saw thee strive to graft a pear-tree with a branch o'
th' tree o' knowledge," saith I.

"Then," saith she, hot as my forge all in a breath, and bouncing from my
knee--"then thou wast an eavesdropper!" saith she.

"Even as the Lord afore me," saith I, not over-pleased at her sauciness.
"And being in some sort thy Creator, and thou having set up for thyself
an Eden in my garden," saith I, "who hath a greater right than I to
watch over thee?" saith I.

Then she not answering me, thus did I continue:

"Why dost thou not take unto thyself an husband," quoth I, "to do both
thyself and thy parents a credit?"

"Show me such an one," saith she, "and I do promise thee to wed him."

"There, then," quoth I, "is Davy Short hose, the poulterer--"

"A bangled-eared buffoon as ever lived!" quoth she; "and a fool into the
bargain."

"So be it," saith I; for I was set upon keeping my temper. "What dost
thou say to Beryamen Piggin, the brewer?"

"A say if ever a piggin was in sore need o' a new link, 'tis that one,"
saith she. "And, what's more, I'll not serve for 't," saith she.

"How, then, of Nanfan Speckle, the tanner?"

"A's as pied as a's name," quoth she, "both soul and body."

"There be Jezreel Spittlewig, the joiner."

"Methinks," quoth she, "if a'd do a little joining to a's own shackling
body, a might hold together long enough to go through the marriage
ceremony," saith she. "Howbeit, I'm not a-sure of 't."

"Well, then, Jack Stirthepot, the chair-mender."

"A'd have to stir th' pot with a witch ere a brewed a wedding with me,"
quo