ow's prizes, and told tales of
the gallant bouts forty years back, to which Tom listened with all his
ears and eyes.

[31] #Pottered#: walked slowly, sauntered.

[32] #"Cheap Jacks"#: pedlers.

[33] #Legitimate#: lawful.

[34] #Fairings#: ribbons, toys, and other small articles sold
for presents.

MORNING OF THE VEAST.

But who shall tell the joy of the next morning, when the church bells
were ringing a merry peal and old Benjy appeared in the servants'
hall, resplendent in a long blue coat and brass buttons, and a pair of
old yellow buckskins[35] and top-boots,[36] which he had cleaned for
and inherited from Tom's grandfather; a stout thorn-stick in his hand,
and a nosegay of pinks and lavender in his button-hole, and led away
Tom in his best clothes, and two new shillings in his breeches
pockets? Those two, at any rate, look like enjoying the day's revel.

[35] #Buckskins#: buckskin breeches.

[36] #Top-boots#: high boots.

They quicken their pace when they get into the church-yard, for
already they see the field thronged with country folk, the men in
clean white smocks or velveteen or fustian[37] coats, with rough plush
waistcoats of many colors, and the women in the beautiful scarlet
cloak, the usual outdoor dress of West-country women in those days,
and which often descended in families from mother to daughter, or in
new-fashioned stuff[38] shawls, which, if they would but believe it,
don't become them half so well. The air resounds with the pipe and
tabor,[39] and the drums and trumpets of the showmen shouting at the
doors of their caravans,[40] over which tremendous pictures of the
wonders to be seen within hang temptingly; while through all rises the
shrill "root-too-too-too" of Mr. Punch, and the unceasing pan-pipe[41]
of his satellite.

[37] #Fustian#: coarse cloth.

[38] #Stuff#: woollen.

[39] #Pipe and tabor#: fife and drum.

[40] #Caravans#: show wagons.

[41] #Pan-pipe#: several pipes or fifes fastened together in
a row, and blown by an attendant or "satellite," in the Punch
and Judy show.

"Lawk a' massey, Mr. Benjamin," cries a stout motherly woman in a red
cloak as they enter the field, "be that you? Well, I never! you do
look purely.[42] And how's the squire, and madam, and the family?"

[42] #Purely#: nicely.

Benjy graciously shakes hands with the speaker, who has left our
village for some years, but has come over