he had
said, that I must come and find mun if I wanted to see him more; and I
lay awake all night a-crying to think that I couldn't tell where to
seek for mun, for find mun I must. But next day when I went out I
glimpsed the old Betsy on the road not far away and whistled to her
(for she never showed herself about Loudacott if she could help, but
watched for me and whistled), and when she saw my face, 'Where's your
rosy cheeks gone, my dear?' she saith. 'A red coat's red enough
without they to dye mun, I reckon.' But she wouldn't tell me where he
was agone, till I said that if she did not I would go out to find mun
for myself. 'Do you mane that?' she saith--I mind it as if 'twas
yesterday--'Then I'll take 'ee to mun. 'Ere, look 'ee! I'll give 'ee
time to think about it, and if you mane to go sarch for mun, do you
meet me here with your clothes o' this day fortnight when the moon
rises.'

"And with that she went away and showed herself down Ashacombe ways
'most every day, to make folks think she was busy thereabouts--that
false and artful she was. But when the days was gone, and mortal long
days they was to me, she was waiting for me as she said, for I wasn't
agoing to change my mind; and then it was that she brought me to this
house and told me to mark the way well. We stayed here till night, and
then we started off walking across the moor, the both of us, until
morning, for she wasn't going to let a maid like me walk by myself, she
said. We took a bit of mate with us and flint and steel, and many was
the things that she taught to me on the road for a body to make herself
nighly as comfortable in the open air as in ever a house.

"We walked night-times only till we was fifty miles away from home, and
then we could keep the road middling well, though I kept my bonnet tied
across my face. And so we drew nigh to Gloucester town, and then the
old Betsy told me that Jan was there with his ridgment, and that I must
find he by myself. And she wished me good-bye, and then the poor soul
fell a-crying, for she said that there was no one left now to be kind
to her. 'And there's hard times before 'ee, my tender,' she saith--I
mind the words well--'but not yet. Good luck will be with 'ee first
along. There's a man loves 'ee, and a man he is; make the most of mun.
You shall cross the sea and come back with gold, but don't 'ee forget
my little house, and if I bean't there, dig under the table, and think
kindly of the o