'That's no new thing,' said Jabez. 'There's more'n one or two in this
parish wouldn't surrender back their Bernarders. You ask Mark Copley an'
his woman an' that Bernarder cripple-babe o' theirs.'

'Maybe they need the five shillin',' Jesse suggested.

'It's handy,' said Jabez. 'But the child's more. "Dada" he says, an'
"Mumma" he says, with his great rollin' head-piece all hurdled up in
that iron collar. _He_ won't live long--his backbone's rotten, like. But
they Copleys do just about set store by him--five bob or no five bob.'

'Same way with Jim an' his mother,' Jesse went on. 'There was talk
betwixt 'em after a few years o' not takin' any more week-end money for
Mary; but let alone _she_ never passed a farden in the mire 'thout
longin's, Jim didn't care, like, to push himself forward into the
Society's remembrance. So naun came of it. The week-end money would ha'
made no odds to Jim--not after his uncle willed him they four cottages
at Eastbourne _an'_ money in the bank.'

'That was true, too, then? I heard something in a scadderin'
word-o'-mouth way,' said Jabez.

'I'll answer for the house property, because Jim he requested my signed
name at the foot o' some papers concernin' it. Regardin' the money in
the bank, he nature-ally wouldn't like such things talked about all
round the parish, so he took strangers for witnesses.'

'Then 'twill make Mary worth seekin' after?'