Chapter Nineteen.
“Father’s come too!”
“Why, my dear hearts!” cried old Mrs Silverside, as the children came in. “How won ye hither?”
“Please, we haven’t been naughty,” said Will, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles.
“Father’s come too, so it’s all right,” added Cissy in a satisfied tone.
Mrs Silverside turned to Robert Purcas. “Is not here a lesson for thee and me, my brother? Our Father is come too: God is with us, and thus it is all right.”
“Marry, these heretics beareth a good brag!” said Wastborowe the gaoler to his man.
It is bad grammar now to use a singular verb with a plural noun; but in 1556 it was correct English over the whole south of England, and the use of the singular with the singular, or the plural with the plural, was a peculiarity of the northern dialect.
“They always doth,” answered the under-gaoler.