"I thought missis, as we was in for a lot of rain."
"I'm missis and I'll 'av things done my way."
As she once said, "Don't meet fear half-way, go all the way and you'll crush 'un in the egg!"
But although Sabina asserted herself with promptitude and decision, it was not in the old effortless way. Her health was far from satisfactory. She held her own, reduced her team to an obedience which for them was happiness, but paid for her victory in restless nights, in pain and weariness. She thought sometimes that it would be impossible for her to carry on.
"I do ache so bad," she told her faithful crony, "that I feel I shall 'av to give up and be a bed-lier."
"My dear life," said Mrs Tom, pursuing her old tactics, "'tis just what Leadville'd like for 'ee to be."
"D'yer think 'e would?"
"Iss, I'm sure 'e would, 'e'd wait on yer 'and and foot."
"I should like to see 'un then."
"I can't fancy you being a bed-lier," said Mrs. Tom comfortably. "Did Gray tell 'ee there's a piece of hedge down in the li'l medder?"