no account, my child. I've had a nap while sitting here. Yes,
I've had a nap, and went straight up into my old country again, as usual.
The place was as natural as when I left it,--e'en just threescore years
ago! All the folks and my old aunt were there, as when I was a
child,--yet I suppose if I were really to set out and go there, hardly a
soul would be left alive to say to me, dog how art! But tell Hannah to
stir her stumps and serve supper--though I'd fain do it myself, the poor
old soul is getting so unhandy!'

Hannah revealed herself to be much nimbler and several years younger than
granny, though of this the latter seemed to be oblivious. When the meal
was nearly over Mrs. Martin produced the contents of the mysterious
vessel by the fire, saying that she had caused it to be brought in from
the back kitchen, because Hannah was hardly to be trusted with such
things, she was becoming so childish.

'What is it, then?' said Swithin. 'Oh, one of your special puddings.' At
sight of it, however, he added reproachfully, 'Now, granny!'

Instead of being round, it was in shape an irregular boulder that had
been exposed to the weather for centuries--a little scrap pared off here,
and a little piece broken away there; the general aim being,
nevertheless, to avoid destroying the symmetry of the pudding while
taking as much as possible of its substance.

'The fact is,' added Swithin, 'the pudding is half gone!'

'I've only sliced off the merest paring once or twice, to taste if it was
well done!' pleaded granny Martin, with wounded feelings. 'I said to
Hannah when she took it up, "Put it here to keep it warm, as there's a
better fire than in the back kitchen."'

'Well, I am not going to eat any of it!' said Swithin decisively, as he
rose from the table, pushed away his chair, and went up-stairs; the
'other station of life that was in his blood,' and which had been brought
out by the grammar school, probably stimulating him.

'Ah, the world is an ungrateful place! 'Twas a pity I didn't take my
poor name off this earthly calendar and creep under ground sixty long
years ago, instead of leaving my own county to come here!' mourned old
Mrs. Martin. 'But I told his mother how 'twould be--marrying so many
notches above her. The child was sure to chaw high, like his father!'

When Swithin had been up-stairs a minute or two however, he altered his
mind, and coming down again ate all the pudding, with the aspect of a
p