for his bits o' things,
seein' as she haven't been faithful to en.' 'She will though,' says
Susan, an' 'tis the talk o' the place that _she will_.'"

Mrs. Haskell clapped her hands together. "Well, well! But what a sammy
the chap was. He did ought to ha' made sure afore makin' sich a will.
It be a will, I suppose, my dear?"

"It be a will sure enough," said Mrs. Tuffin gloomily. "There, Susan
did tell I as that there artful hussy made sure he got it signed an'
all reg'lar. There's a few pounds too in the savings bank--I don't
know if she'd be able to get 'em out or not."

"Well, I never heerd such a tale. That maid must be a reg'lar Jezebel,
Betty, that's what she must be. That hard-hearted, unfeelin'--Lard ha'
mercy me! Well, well, well!"

Betty took up her basket again, and was proceeding leisurely towards
the door, shaking her head and uttering condemnatory groans the while,
when she suddenly gripped her friend by the arm with an eager
exclamation.

"There she be!--there's the very maid a-walkin' by so bold as brass
with her young man along of her!"

"I shouldn't wonder," said Mrs. Haskell in sepulchral tones, "I
shouldn't wonder but what she be a-goin' up to Susan's to pick out
poor Abel's things."

"Dear, do you raly think so?" gasped Betty, almost dropping her basket
in her horror. "Why the noos of him bein' killed only come this
marnin'."

"I d' 'low she be a-goin' there," repeated Mrs. Haskell emphatically.
"If I was you, Betty, I'd follow 'em, careless-like, an' jist find
out. It do really seem like a dooty for to find out. I'd go along of
you only my wold man 'ull be a-hollerin' out for his tea."

A muffled voice was indeed heard at that very moment proceeding from
the bedroom, accompanied by an imperative knocking on the wall.

"There he be," said Mrs. Haskell, not without a certain pride. "He do
know the time so reg'lar as church clock. He'll go on a-shoutin' and
a-hammerin' at wall wi' his wold boot till I do come. I do tell en he
wears out a deal more shoe-leather that way nor if he were on his
feet."

She turned to go upstairs, and Betty crossing the threshold stood a
moment irresolute. Her basket, full of purchases recently made at the
shop a mile away, was heavy enough, and her feet were weary; but
Jenny's tantalising red head gleamed like a beacon twenty yards away
from her, and curiosity silenced the pleadings of fatigue. Hitching up
her basket she proceeded in the wake of the young co