rest, 'tis my belief we should never ha' left the gallery."

"'Tis my belief that though Shiner fired the bullets, the parson made
'em," said Mr. Penny. "My wife sticks to it that he's in love wi' her."

"That's a thing we shall never know. I can't onriddle her, nohow."

"Thou'st ought to be able to onriddle such a little chiel as she," the
tranter observed.

"The littler the maid, the bigger the riddle, to my mind. And coming of
such a stock, too, she may well be a twister."

"Yes; Geoffrey Day is a clever man if ever there was one. Never says
anything: not he."

"Never."

"You might live wi' that man, my sonnies, a hundred years, and never know
there was anything in him."

"Ay; one o' these up-country London ink-bottle chaps would call Geoffrey
a fool."

"Ye never find out what's in that man: never," said Spinks. "Close? ah,
he is close! He can hold his tongue well. That man's dumbness is
wonderful to listen to."

"There's so much sense in it. Every moment of it is brimmen over wi'
sound understanding."