was born or just afterwards."

"Pore feller, too. I suppose th'st want to come wi' us?" the tranter
murmured.

"Well, Leaf, you shall come wi' us as yours is such a melancholy family,"
said old William rather sadly.

"I never see such a melancholy family as that afore in my life," said
Reuben. "There's Leaf's mother, poor woman! Every morning I see her
eyes mooning out through the panes of glass like a pot-sick
winder-flower; and as Leaf sings a very high treble, and we don't know
what we should do without en for upper G, we'll let en come as a trate,
poor feller."

"Ay, we'll let en come, 'a b'lieve," said Mr. Penny, looking up, as the
pull happened to be at that moment.

"Now," continued the tranter, dispersing by a new tone of voice these
digressions about Leaf; "as to going to see the pa'son, one of us might
call and ask en his meaning, and 'twould be just as well done; but it
will add a bit of flourish to the cause if the quire waits on him as a
body. Then the great thing to mind is, not for any of our fellers to be
nervous; so before starting we'll one and all come to my house and have a
rasher of bacon; then every man-jack het a pint of cider into his inside;
then we'll warm up an extra drop wi' some mead and a bit of ginger; every
one take a thimbleful--just a glimmer of a drop, mind ye, no more, to
finish off his inner man--and march off to Pa'son Mayble. Why, sonnies,
a man's not himself till he is fortified wi' a bit and a drop? We shall
be able to look any gentleman in the face then without shrink or shame."