BIRDS' NESTS. 155 



good many can't say, that he has not spent a 

 penny in drink since Christmas." 



Mrs. Johnson intended to finish the con- 

 versation with this speech, which she imagined 

 her visitor must consider a triumphant defence. 

 The fact was, that she had run up a long bill 

 at the village shopkeepers' more than two 

 years ago, and had promised so often to pay 

 it, at one time with hay-money, and at another 

 wdth harvest-money, without keeping her word, 

 that the shopkeepers had at last refused to let 

 her have a single article more without paying 

 ready money; and had moreover threatened 

 to sue her husband in the county court, un- 

 less she paid two shillings a-week, till the 

 whole sum due was paid oft". The consequence 

 was, that Johnson had no money which he 

 could spend at the public-house, so that his 

 wife's statement that he had not spent a penny 

 there since Christmas, sounded as if it were 

 true. He had not, however, ceased to go there, 

 or to drink there. A long score stood against 



