So ’ee sez, ‘Come up to the fire an’ warm you. You looks very cold.’
It was a sperrit, you see. ’Ee wouldn’t come up to the fire, so Ashypelt went an’ fetched im. Ashypelt sez, ‘Will you ’ave a smoke?’ ’ee sez, an’ ’ee takes an’ ’ee fills ’im a new pipe. ’Ee sez, ‘Will you crack some nuts?’
So ’ee smoked all poor Ashypelt’s ’bacca, an’ cracked all ’is nuts, an’ poor Ashypelt ’ad none. But ’ee sez, ‘You are a very greedy fellow indeed, I must say,’ ’ee sed, ‘after a man bringing you up to warm you at the fire, an’ taking everythink off ’im.’
Just about the hour o’ two o’clock away goes this man from ’im. So therefore Ashypelt sits contented down afore the fire to hisself.
So next mornin’ the master sez to ’im at the hour o’ six o’clock, ‘Are you alive, Ashypelt?’
‘Oh! yes,’ ’ee sez to ’im, ‘I am alive, sir. An’ there came a very rude man ’ere last night, an’ took all my [[238]]’bacca, an’ cracked all my nuts off me,’ ’ee sez, ‘for the kindness I done for ’im. ’Ee was naked, an’ I axed ’im to ’ave a warm.’
‘Well,’ ’ee sez to Ashypelt, ‘come along an’ ’ave some breakfast, Ashypelt.’ An’ ’ee takes ’im to the new ’ouse from the castle, to ’ave some breakfast. ‘Would you wish to stop another night, Ashypelt?’ ’ee sez, ‘an’ I’ll give you another fifty pounds.’
‘Oh! yes,’ sez Ashypelt, ‘’im never seein’ anythin’, an’ never knowin’ wot sperrits or ghostses was, ’im bein’ allus in the esshole.’
So all day Ashypelt went up an’ down the garden, an’ learnin’ ’ow to dig in the garden an’ one thing or another, tel eleven o’clock came again the next night.
‘Well, come, Ashypelt, my lad,’ ’ee sed, ‘it’s time for you to go back to your room agen now.’