to say, a pitcher formed of leather. An armchair was at the head of
the table, and heavy oaken benches along the side.

A little boy of six years old sat astride on the end of one of the
benches, round which he had thrown a bridle of plaited rushes, and,
with a switch in his other hand, was springing himself up and down,
calling out, "Come, Eleanor, come, Lucy; come and ride on a pillion
behind me to Worcester, to see King Charles and brother Edmund."

"I'll come, I am coming!" cried Eleanor, a little girl about a year
older, her hair put tightly away under a plain round cap, and she was
soon perched sideways behind her brother.

"Oh, fie, Mistress Eleanor; why, you would not ride to the wars?"
This was said by a woman of about four or five-and-twenty, tall, thin
and spare, with a high colour, sharp black eyes, and a waist which
the long stiff stays, laced in front, had pinched in till it was not
much bigger than a wasp's, while her quilted green petticoat,
standing out full below it, showed a very trim pair of ankles encased
in scarlet stockings, and a pair of bony red arms came forth from the
full short sleeves of a sort of white jacket, gathered in at the
waist. She was clattering backwards and forwards, removing the
dinner things, and talking to the children as she did so in a sharp
shrill tone: "Such a racket as you make, to be sure, and how you can
have the heart to do so I can't guess, not I, considering what may be
doing this very moment."

"Oh, but Walter says they will all come back again, brother Edmund,
and Diggory, and all," said little Eleanor, "and then we shall be
merry."