ed from the house, evidently a little the worse in their
articulation by reason of the potations they had taken.

"Quiet, Vick! Hang thy neck, what's a matter? Eh! the pear-tree? It's
the thief again--and before the fruit's ripe. Bodikins! but we'll
catch thee now, 'r lady. We'll have a thong out of his hide; split me,
if we ha'n't!"

The men approached as cautiously as their condition would permit;
while Anthony, overhearing the latter part of their dialogue, sat
somewhat insecurely on his perch.

"Dan, get th' big cudgel out o' t' barn. I see a some'at black like,
an' fearsome, i' th' tree."

Probably they had imbibed courage with their liquor, otherwise the
black "somewhat" in the tree might have indisposed them for this
daring attack.

"I'll have a blow at it, be't mon or devil, hang me."

Anthony pulled his cloak tightly about him; and while the weapon was
providing he entertained serious thoughts of surrendering at
discretion; but the effect which this premature disclosure might have
on his mistress's determination towards him retarded the discovery;
and he was not without hope of eluding the drunken valour of the
brutes.

"Now gie't me, Dan--Tol de rol--

'An' back and sides go bare, go bare.'"

Approaching to the attack, Barnaby brandished his cudgel to the time
and tune of this celebrated alehouse ditty. The concluding flourish
brought the weapon waving within a very concise distance of the goodly
person of Master Anthony Hardcastle.

"Murder!--Villains!" cried the terrified lover, unable to endure the
menacing aspect of this fearful invader; "I'm Master Anthony, ye sots,
ye unthrifts--your master, is to be; and I--I'll have ye i' the stocks
for this."

"Bodikins and blunderkins? hear'st him, Dan? Why, thou lying
lackpenny, I'll soon whack the corruption out o' thee. Master Anthony,
indeed! he be another guess sort of thing to thee, I trow. Thee be'st
hankering after the good things hereabout; but I'll spoil thy
liquorish tooth for tasting. Come, unkennel, vermin!"

"I am Master Anthony, friend, as safe as my mother bore me. If thou
lackest knowledge, go ask Hodge with the horses at the back gate."

"Then what be'st thou for i' the pear-tree? Na, na; Master Anthony is
gone home a great whiles back. He's to marry young mistress i' the
morn, an' we're getting drunk by participation. There's for thee! I
talks like ou'd Daniel the schoolmaster."

Sorely discomposed with the infliction of thi