"Yes, ma'am. What can us do, when one's man gets but seven shillings a
week. And I've had six children, and buried three," and her face looked
ready for tears.
"Well, we will come and see you, and try to find something to help you,"
said Mrs Carbonel. "Where do you live?"
"Out beyond the church, ma'am--a long way for a lady."
"Oh, we are good walkers."
"And please, my lady," now said Molly, coming to the front, "if you
could give me an old bit of a pelisse, or anything, to make up for my
boy there. He's getting big, you see, and he is terrible bad off for
clothes. I don't know what is to be done for the lot of 'em."
Dora had recognised in the staring boy, who had come up close, him who
had made the commotion in church; and she ventured to say, "I remember
him. Don't you think, if you or his father kept him with you in church,
he would behave better there?"
"Bless you, miss, his father is a sceptic. I can't go while I've got no
clothes--nothing better than this, miss; and I always was used to go
decent and respectable. Besides, I couldn't nohow take he into the seat
with me, as Master Pucklechurch would say I was upsetting of his
missus."
"Well, I hope to see him behave better next Sunday."
"Do you hear, Jem? The lady is quite shocked at your rumbustiousness!
But 'twas all Joe Saunders's fault, ma'am, a terrifying the poor
children. His father will give him the stick, that he will, if he hears
of it again."
Meantime Mrs Carbonel had turned to Widow Mole, who, after her first
curtsey, had been weeding away diligently and coughing.
"Where do you live?" she asked. "I don't think I have seen you before."
"No, ma'am," she said quietly. "I live down the Black Hollow."
"You don't look well. Have you been ill? You have a bad cough."
"It ain't nothing, ma'am, thank you. I can keep about well enough."
"Do you take anything for it?"
"A little yarb tea at night sometimes, ma'am."
"We will try and bring you some mixture for it," said Mrs Carbonel.
And then she spoke to Betsy Seddon, who for a wonder had no request on
her tongue, and asked her who the other woman was, in the hedge with the
baby.
"That's Tirzah Todd, ma'am," began Mrs Seddon, but Molly Hewlett thrust
her aside, and went on, being always the most ready with words; "she is
Reuben Todd's wife, and I wouldn't wish to say no harm of her, but she
comes of a gipsy lot, and hasn't never got into ways that us calls
reverend, though I wouldn't be saying no harm of a neighbour, ma'am."
"No, you'd better not," exclaimed a voice, for Tirzah was nearer or had
better ears than Mrs Daniel Hewlett had suspected, "though I mayn't go
hypercriting about and making tales of my neighbours, as if you hadn't
got a man what ain't to be called sober twice a week."
"Hush! hush!" broke in Mrs Carbonel; "we don't want to hear all this.
I hope no one will tell us unkind things of our new neighbours, for we
want to be friends with all of you, especially with that bright-eyed
baby. How old is it?"
She made it smile by nodding to it, and Tirzah was mollified enough to
say, "Four months, ma'am; but she have a tooth coming."
"What's her name?"
Tirzah showed her pretty white teeth in a smile. "Well, ma'am, my
husband he doth want to call her Jane, arter his mother, 'cause 'tis a
good short name, but I calls her Hoglah, arter my sister as died."
"Then she hasn't been christened?"
"No. You see we couldn't agree, nor get gossips; and that there parson,
he be always in such a mighty hurry, or I'd a had her half-baptized
Hoglah, and then Reuben he couldn't hinder it."
Tirzah was getting quite confidential to Mrs Carbonel, and Dora
meantime was talking to Molly Hewlett, but here it occurred to the
former that they must not waste the women's time, and they wished them
good-bye, Dora fearing, however, that there would be a quarrel between
Tirzah and Molly.
"Oh dear! oh dear!" she sighed, "couldn't you make peace between those
two," she said; "they will fight it out."
"No, I think the fear of the farmer and the need of finishing their work
will avert the storm for the present at least," said Mary, "and I
thought the more I said, the worse accusations I should hear."
"But what people they are! I do begin to believe that attorney man,
that they are a bad lot."
"Don't be disheartened, Dora, no one has tried yet, apparently, to do
anything for them. We must try to see them in their own homes."
"Beginning with Mrs Seddon. She was quiet and civil, and did not beg."
"Neither did that thin little woman. I should like to give her a
flannel petticoat. There is a look of want about her."
"But I'm most taken with the wild woman, with the teeth and the eyes,
and the merry smile. I am sure there is fun in her."
"Little enough fun, poor things!" sighed Mrs Carbonel.
She was more used to poor people. She had more resolution, though less
enthusiasm than her sister.