d, "Well enough, for that matter; but none the better
for the noise you great clods have been making."

"I am sorry if we have disturbed you, sir," I answered very civilly;
"but I knew not that you were here even; and you must allow for harvest
time."

"So it seems," he replied; "and allow a great deal, including waste
and drunkenness. Now (if you can see so small a thing, after emptying
flagons much larger) this is my granddaughter, and my heiress"--here he
glanced at mother--"my heiress, little Ruth Huckaback."

"I am very glad to see you, Ruth," I answered, offering her my hand,
which she seemed afraid to take, "welcome to Plover's Barrows, my good
cousin Ruth."

However, my good cousin Ruth only arose, and made me a curtsey, and
lifted her great brown eyes at me, more in fear, as I thought, than
kinship. And if ever any one looked unlike the heiress to great
property, it was the little girl before me.

"Come out to the kitchen, dear, and let me chuck you to the ceiling," I
said, just to encourage her; "I always do it to little girls; and then
they can see the hams and bacon." But Uncle Reuben burst out laughing;
and Ruth turned away with a deep rich colour.

"Do you know how old she is, you numskull?" said Uncle Ben, in his
dryest drawl; "she was seventeen last July, sir."

"On the first of July, grandfather," Ruth whispered, with her back still
to me; "but many people will not believe it."

Here mother came up to my rescue, as she always loved to do; and she
said, "If my son may not dance Miss Ruth, at any rate he may dance with
her. We have only been waiting for you, dear John, to have a little
harvest dance, with the kitchen door thrown open. You take Ruth; Uncle
Ben take Sally; Master Debby pair off with Polly; and neighbour Nicholas
will be good enough, if I can awake him, to stand up with fair Mistress
Kebby. Lizzie will play us the virginal. Won't you, Lizzie dear?"

"But who is to dance with you, madam?" Uncle Ben asked, very politely.
"I think you must rearrange your figure. I have not danced for a score
of years; and I will not dance now, while the mistress and the owner of
the harvest sits aside neglected."

"Nay, Master Huckaback," cried Sally Snowe, with a saucy toss of her
hair; "Mistress Ridd is too kind a great deal, in handing you over to
me. You take her; and I will fetch Annie to be my partner this evening.
I like dancing very much better with girls, for they never squeeze and
rumple o