"True: that was the next thing he done."

"And the next thing was to tell the young chaps that they were not on no
account to put their hats in the christening font during service."

"True."

"And then 'twas this, and then 'twas that, and now 'tis--"

Words were not forcible enough to conclude the sentence, and Mr. Penny
gave a huge pull to signify the concluding word.

"Now 'tis to turn us out of the quire neck and crop," said the tranter
after an interval of half a minute, not by way of explaining the pause
and pull, which had been quite understood, but as a means of keeping the
subject well before the meeting.

Mrs. Penny came to the door at this point in the discussion. Like all
good wives, however much she was inclined to play the Tory to her
husband's Whiggism, and vice versa, in times of peace, she coalesced with
him heartily enough in time of war.

"It must be owned he's not all there," she replied in a general way to
the fragments of talk she had heard from indoors. "Far below poor Mr.
Grinham" (the late vicar).

"Ay, there was this to be said for he, that you were quite sure he'd
never come mumbudgeting to see ye, just as you were in the middle of your
work, and put you out with his fuss and trouble about ye."