"Nay, then, I didn't, if you want to know, because I never gitten chanst. I didn't rightly know what to say, neither, come to that. You catched doctor right enough, I suppose?"
"Ay, we hadn't to wait or owt. And he was right kind, he was that!"
"Happen he hadn't a deal to say, after all?" Simon enquired hopefully, and she gave a faint laugh.
"Nobbut that if I didn't have an operation right off, I'd be as blind as a barn-door owl by next year!"
Simon said "Gox!" and jerked the horse so violently that it nearly went through the hedge. "Losh, missis, that's bad!" he went on dismally, when he had straightened out. "It's worse than I looked for, by a deal. I've always been terble feared of operations and such-like. What's to be done about it, d'ye think?"
"Nowt."
"Nay, but dang it!" he cried sharply,--"we can't leave it like yon! If there's owt they can do for you, we mun let them try. They say some folk come out right enough, wi' a bit o' luck."
"Luck isn't much in our way, I doubt," she said, with a sigh, "and it'd mean begging o' somebody, I reckon, and I've had enough o' that. May says there's free spots for such as us, but there's not that much free in this world as I've ever seen. I doubt it'd mean somebody's brass or other going to pay for it in the end."
"I could ax Will----" Simon began hurriedly, without pausing to think, but she stopped him before the well-known formula was out.
"Nay, then, master, you'll do nowt o' the sort, so that's all there is about it! You're his brother, and you've a right to do as you choose, but I'll never take a penny piece from him if it's nobbut for myself."