niver set een on the ash-riddling. He soon fell asleep, and after a
while I dozed off too, and dreamt I were murdering Owd Jerry i' the
staggarth. As soon as cockleet came, I wakkened up and crept downstairs,
quiet-like, so as not to-wakken Mike or the childer. And there on the
hearthstone were the ashes, and reet i' the middle on 'em the prent of a
man's clog.

"It were Jerry's clog as plain as life. When I saw it I went all of a
didder, and thought I sud ha' fainted' for all that I'd dreamt about
murdering Owd Jerry came back into my mind. But I drave a pin into my
arm to rouse misen, and took the besom and swept up the ashes and lit
the fire. After I'd mashed misen a cup o' tea I felt better, and got
agate wi' the housewark. But, by the mass! it was a dree day for me, was
yon. Ivery time I heerd the owd man hoast I thought he were boun' to
dee. But he was better that day nor he'd been for a long while, and he
kept mending all the time. I couldn't forget, howiver, what I'd done,
and the thought of how I'd yielded to the devil's ticement made me more
patient and gentle wi' Jerry nor iver I'd been afore.

"Spring set in and the birds came back frae beyont the sea, swallows and
yallow wagtails and sandpipers; the meadows were breet wi' paigles, and
the childer gethered bluebells and lilies o' the valley i' the woods for
Whissuntide, and iverything went on same as afore. We had a good lambing
time, and a good hay harvest at efter. I kept Jerry under my eye all the
while, and nowt went wrang wi' him. He'd get about the farm wi' the
dogs, a bit waffy on his legs, mebbe, but his appetite kept good, and
he'd ommost lossen his hoast. He fratched and threaped same as usual if
owt went wrang wi' his meals, or if the childer made ower mich racket i'
the house, but it took a vast o' care off my mind to think that he could
get about and go down to 'The Craven Heifer' for his forenoon drinkings,