"Ay, I said how 'twould be!" cried Nanny, while still a score yards off. "Frittering thy time away, while th' wife is wearing herseln bone-thin for thee. Here th' dinner hes been cooked this half-hour, an' th' dumplings as cold as Christmas, an' I allus did say th' most worritsome trick a man could hev war coming late to his victuals."
"I'm coming, fast as legs 'ull tak me," said Witherlee, scrambling to his feet. "An' as for th' dumplings--I'd as lief hev 'em cold as warm; it's all one when they've gone down a body's throat."
"Hearken to him! All one, says he--he'll be telling me next there's nowt to choose 'twixt to-day an' yesterday. Is't all one whether _tha_'rt warm, or cold as one o' yond coffin-chaps under sod?--Ay, an' now there's Earnshaw coming. Well, well, if him an' thee once get together, there'll nowt less than a thunderstorm skift ye, an' that I'll warrant."
Earnshaw, coming up from the Bull tavern, met them as they turned the corner of the pathway. His hands were thrust deep into his pockets, and he wore his usual air of shiftless cheeriness.
"Blowing rain, I fancy," said Earnshaw, standing square across the path.
"Blowing fiddlesticks," snapped Nanny, who was in one of her worst fratching moods. "Get out o' th' gate, Earnshaw, an' let busier folk pass by. It's weel to be thee, or Witherlee here--nowt to do save put hands i' pockets, an' tak 'em out again."
"Nay, now, tha'rt allus so bustling, Nanny. Tak life at a fair, easy pace, say I, an' ye'll noan need Witherlee's pick an' shovel this side o' three-score years an' ten. Hast heard th' news, like?"
The Sexton's wife could not resist that simple query. "News? What's agate?" she said, half turning about.
"Why, th' Wildwater farm-lads is getting past all. There's no day goes by now, so Hiram Hey telled me, but what they come to words or blows wi' th' Marsh lot. It means summat: like master, like man, an' I warrant they've ta'en example fro' th' Lean Man hisseln. What mak o' chance lies Shameless Wayne, that's what I want to knaw?"
"Tha wert up at Wildwater thyseln awhile back?" said the Sexton, still with one eye on his wife.
"Ay, for sure. I war in an' amang 'em while I war doing yond walling job for th' Lean Man; an' they war allus clevering then about what th' Ratcliffes war bahn to do, an' allus striving to pick a quarrel wi' ony o' th' Marsh lads 'at came handy. I tak no sides myseln----"