278 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



have used a couple of rails. The best timber well 

 seasoned, the best workmanship, no haste, plenty of 

 talk and plenty of ' Goliath ' ale for the carpenter : ' it 

 was the Iden way.' 



Beside him, Mrs. Iden is hardly more than a ghost, 

 nervous, irritable, shrill, shuffling, dissatisfied with every- 

 thing . . . but a very real ghost such as abounds in this 

 world. She lives chiefly in the passage where she has 

 been abusing Luce, the maid, for not doing things which 

 are in fact done. 



' So, flinging the duster at Luce, out she flew into the 

 court, and thence into the kitchen, where she cut a great 

 slice of bread and cheese, and drew a quart of ale, and 

 took them out to Bill Nye. 



' " Aw, thank'ee m'm," said Bill, from the very depth 

 of his chest, and set to work happily. 



' Next, she drew a mug for Jearje, who held it with one 

 hand and sipped, while he turned with the other ; his 

 bread and cheese he ate in like manner, he could not wait 

 till he had finished the churning. 



' " Verily, man is made up of impatience," said the 

 angel Gabriel in the Koran, as you no doubt remember ; 

 Adam was made of clay (who was the sculptor's ghost 

 that modelled him ?), and when the breath of life was 

 breathed into him, he rose on his arm and begun to eat 

 before his lower limbs were yet vivified. This is a fact. 

 " Verily, man is made up of impatience." As the angel 

 had never had a stomach or anything to sit upon, as the 

 French say, he need not have made so unkind a remark ; 

 if he had had a stomach and a digestion hke Bill Nye and 

 Jearje, it is certain he would never have wanted to be an 

 angel. 



' Next, there were four cottage children now in the court, 

 waiting for scraps. 



' Mrs. Iden, bustling to and fro hke a whirlwind, swept 

 the poor little things into the kitchen and filled two 

 baskets for them with slices of bread and butter, squares 

 of cheese, a beef bone, half a rabbit, a dish of cold potatoes. 



