iality and respect.

"Very sorry about this little affair. 'Tis a pity, I sez, that such
a fuss be made over trifles. There's been the crownin' of the body,
and now there's to be the hearin' of you afore the magistrates, and
then they say you'll have to go to the 'sizez, and there'll come
the hangin'. 'Tis terrible lot o' fuss all about Jonas as wasn't
worth it. No one'll miss him and if you did kill him, well, there
was cause, and I don't think the wuss o' you for it."

"Thank you, Joe, but I did not kill him."

"Well--you know--it's right for you to say so, 'cos you'll have to
plead not guilty. Polly, at our place never allows she's broke
nothin', but the chinay and the pipkins have got a terrible way of
committin' felo de se since she came to the Ship. She always sez
she didn't do it--and right enough. No one in this free country
is obliged to incriminate hisself. That's one of our glorious
institootions."

"I really am guiltless," urged Mehetabel.

"Quite right you should say so. Pleased to hear it. But I don't
know what the magistrates will say. Most folks here sez you did,
and all the Punch-Bowl will swear it. They sez you tried to kill
him wi' his own gun, but didn't succeed as you wished, so now you
knocked him on the head effectual like, and tippled his dead body
down into the kiln. He was an aggravatin' chap, was Bideabout, and
deserved it. But that is not what I come here to say."

"And that was--"

"Well, now, I mustn't say it too loud. I just slipped in when
nobody was about, as I don't want it to be known as I am here. The
master and I settled it between us."

"Settled what, Joe?"

"You see he always had a wonderful liking for you, and so had I.
He was agin you marryin' the Broom-Squire, but the missus would
have it so. Now he's goyne to send me with the trap to Portsmouth.
He's had orders for it from a gent as be comin' wild fowl shootin'
in the Moor. So my notion is I'll drive by here in the dark, and
you'll be ready, and come along wi' me, takin' the baby with you,
and I'll whip you off to Portsmouth, and nobody a penny the wiser.
I've got a married sister there--got a bit o' a shop, and I'll take
you to her, and if you don't mind a bit o' nonsense, I'll say you're
my wife and that's my baby. Then you can stay there till all is
quiet. I've a notion as Master Colpus be comin' to arrest you
to-morrow, and that would be comical games. If you will come along
wi' me, and let me pass you off as I