in the night to spekilate thereon. For I felt it very curious there
shud he three Zebedee Minardses i' this parish a-drawin' separate breath
at the same time."

"Iss, 'tis an out-o'-the-way fact."

"A stirrin' age, when such things befall! If you'd a-told me, a week
agone, that I should live to see the like, I'd ha' called 'ee a liar;
an' yet here I be a-talkin' away, an' there you be a-listening an' here
be the old world a-spinnin' us round as in bygone times--"

"Iss, iss--but what's the question?"

"--All the same when that furriner chap looks up in Tresidder's kitchen
an' says 'My name is Zebedee Minards,' you might ha' blown me down wi' a
puff; an' says I to mysel', wakin' up last night an' thinkin'--'I'll ax
a question of Old Zeb when I sees en, blest if I don't.'"

"Then why in thunder don't 'ee make haste an' do it?"

Uncle Issy, after revolving the question for another fifteen seconds,
produced it in this attractive form--

"Old Zeb, bein' called Zeb, why did 'ee call Young Zeb, Zeb?"

Old Zeb ceased to knock the clods about, descended the path, and leaning
on his visgy began to contemplate the opposite slope of the coombe, as
if the answer were written, in letters hard to decipher, along the
hill-side.