good wife has
found him.'

'Why, but, child,' says the old lady, 'she is a beggar.'

'Why, then, madam, she has the more need of charity,' says Robin; 'I'll
take her off the hands of the parish, and she and I'll beg together.'

'It's bad jesting with such things,' says the mother.

'I don't jest, madam,' says Robin. 'We'll come and beg your pardon,
madam; and your blessing, madam, and my father's.'

'This is all out of the way, son,' says the mother. 'If you are in
earnest you are undone.'

'I am afraid not,' says he, 'for I am really afraid she won't have me;
after all my sister's huffing and blustering, I believe I shall never
be able to persuade her to it.'

'That's a fine tale, indeed; she is not so far out of her senses
neither. Mrs. Betty is no fool,' says the younger sister. 'Do you
think she has learnt to say No, any more than other people?'

'No, Mrs. Mirth-wit,' says Robin, 'Mrs. Betty's no fool; but Mrs. Betty
may be engaged some other way, and what then?'

'Nay,' says the eldest sister, 'we can say nothing to that. Who must
it be to, then? She is never out of the doors; it must be between you.'

'I have nothing to say to that,' says Robin. 'I have been examined
enough; there's my brother. If it must be between us, go to work with
him.'

This stung the elder brother to the quick, and he concluded that Robin
had discovered something. However, he kept himself from appearing
disturbed. 'Prithee,' says he, 'don't go to shame your stories off
upon me; I tell you, I deal in no such ware; I have nothing to say to
Mrs. Betty, nor to any of the Mrs. Bettys in the parish'; and with that
he rose up and brushed off.

'No,' says the eldest sister, 'I dare answer for my brother; he knows
the world better.'

Thus the discourse ended, but it left the elder brother quite
confounded. He concluded his brother had made a full discovery, and he
began to doubt whether I had been concerned in it or not; but with all
his management he could not bring it about to get at me. At last he
was so perplexed that he was quite desperate, and resolved he would
come into my chamber and see me, whatever came of it. In order to do
this, he contrived it so, that one day after dinner, watching his
eldest sister till he could see her go upstairs, he runs after her.
'Hark ye, sister,' says he, 'where is this sick woman? May not a body
see her?' 'Yes,' says the sister, 'I believe you may; but let me go
first a little,