word all dinner time but 'Curse the quiens!'

"I said, I must know who' they were, before I would curse them.

"'Quiens? why, that was dogs. And I knew not even that much? He had made
a bad bargain. Well, well,' said he, 'to-morrow we shall be in Germany.
There the folk are music bitten, and they molest not beggars, unless
they fake to boot, and then they drown us out of hand that moment, curse
'em!' We came to Strasbourg. And I looked down Rhine with longing heart.
The stream how swift! It seemed running to clip Sevenbergen to its soft
bosom. With but a piece of timber and an oar I might drift at my ease to
thee, sleeping yet gliding still. 'Twas a sore temptation. But the fear
of an ill welcome from my folk, and of the neighbours' sneers, and the
hope of coming back to thee victorious, not, as now I must, defeated and
shamed, and thee with me, it did withhold me; and so, with many sighs,
and often turning of the head to look on beloved Rhine, I turned
sorrowful face and heavy heart towards Augsburg."

"Alas, dame, alas! Good master Eli, forgive me! But I ne'er can win over
this part all at one time. It taketh my breath away. Welladay! Why did
he not listen to his heart? Had he not gone through peril enow, sorrow
enow? Well-a-day! well-a-day!"

The letter dropped from her hand, and she drooped like a wounded lily.

Then there was a clatter on the floor, and it was little Kate going on
her crutches, with flushed face, and eyes full of pity, to console her.
"Water, mother," she cried. "I am afeared she shall swoon."

"Nay, nay, fear me not," said Margaret feebly. "I will not be so
troublesome. Thy good-will it maketh me stouter hearted, sweet mistress
Kate. For, if thou carest how I fare, sure Heaven is not against me."

Catherine. "D'ye hear that, my man!"

Eli. "Ay, wife, I hear; and mark to boot."

Little Kate went back to her place, and Margaret read on.

"The Germans are fonder of armorials than the French. So I found work
every day. And whiles I wrought, my master would leave me, and doff his
raiment and don his rags, and other infirmities, and cozen the world,
which he did clepe it 'plucking of the goose:' this done, would meet me
and demand half my earnings; and with restless piercing eye ask me would
I be so base as cheat my poor master by making three parts in lieu of
two, till I threatened to lend him a cuff to boot in requital of his
suspicion; and thenceforth took his due, with feigned confidence i