A GREAT SURPRISE. 43 



a chicken-hearted, snivelling kind of fellow: 

 through 'em all I walked stiff and upright ; 

 I never put my nose in another man's pot, 

 and never begged a favour of a living soul. 

 Pinched as I was, nobody knew it but my 

 partner ; and badly as we were off, all was as 

 tidy as a new pin ; she'd have no rags nor 

 dirt, no reminding me what we once had 

 been, and what I'd lost; and if our sick 

 children hadn't kept her at home, she'd 

 never have wanted a day's charing, for she 

 was a favourite with gentle and simple, and 

 in the worst of times was always ready to 

 help a poor sick neighbour ; and every body 

 had a kindly word for her when they saw 

 her homely face. 



The day after I met the squire, I was 

 coming down the path home, and when 

 just in sight of the cottage I met the young 

 ladies and their governess, as I often did, 

 and very kindly I thought they all spoke to 

 me as they struck off to the other pathway 

 for the gate by my old garden cottage, which 

 they used to go home by. The nearer my 

 house I got, the more I stared ; the bit of 

 blind was took away from the window, and 

 it was wide open, and somehow it looked 



