"I reckon," said the landlord, as soon as the swell had a little
subsided, "they must be the two chaps that put up here, some time ago,
for an hour or so. You should ha' seen 'em get on and off the
saddle--that's all! Why, a' laughed outright! The chap with the hair
under his chin got on upon the wrong side, and t'other seemed as if he
thought his beast would a' _bit_ him!"

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed all.

"I thought they'd a' both got a fall before they'd gone a dozen yards!"

"They've taken a strange fancy to my churchyard," said the sexton,
setting down his glass, and then preparing to fill his pipe again;
"they've been looking about among 'em--among t'ould gravestones, up
behind t'ould yew-tree yonder; and one of them writ something, now and
then, in a book; so they're book-writers, in coorse!"

"That's scholars, I reckon," quoth Dickons; "but rot the larning of such
chaps as them!"

"I wonder if they'll put a picture o' the Hall in their book," quoth the
sexton. "They axed a many questions about the people up there,
especially about the squire's father, and some ould folk, whose names I
knew when they spoke of 'em--but I hadn't heard o' them for this forty
year. And one of 'em (he were the shortest, and such a chap, to be
sure!--just like the monkey that were dressed i' man's clothes, last
Grilston fair) talked uncommon fine about young _Miss_"----

"If _I'd_ a' heard him tak' her name into his dirty mouth, his teeth
should a' gone after it!" said Tonson.

"Lord! he didn't say any harm--only silly like--and t' other seemed now
and then not to like his going on so. The little one said Miss were a
lovely gal, or something like that--and hoped they'd become by-and-by
better friends--ah, ha!"

"What! wi' that chap?" said Pumpkin--and he looked as if he were
meditating putting the little sexton up the chimney, for the mere naming
of such a thing.

"I reckon they're fro' London, and brought toon tricks wi' 'em--for I
never heard o' such goings on as theirs down _here_ afore," said Tonson.

"One of 'em--him that axed me all the questions, and wrote i' t' book,
seemed a sharp enough chap in his way; but I can't say much for the
little one," said Higgs. "Lud, I couldn't hardly look in his face for
laughing, he seemed such a fool!--He had a riding-whip wi' a silver
head, and stood smacking his legs (you should ha' seen how tight his
clothes was on his legs--I warrant you, Tim Timpkins never see'd such a
thing, I'll