"It will that," put in another earnestly; "my! how feyther did beat mother last night; he were as drunk as could be, and he went on awful."
"I think sometimes men are worse nor beasts," another said.
"Do 'ee know I've heard," Sarah Shepherd said, "that the new schoolmistress be a-going to open a night-school for girls, to teach sewing, and cutting out, and summat o' cooking." There was a general exclamation of astonishment, and so strange was the news that it was some time before any one ventured a comment on it.
"What dost think o't?" Sarah questioned at last.
"Only sewing and cutting out and cooking and such like, and not lessons?" Bess Thompson asked doubtfully.
"Not reg'lar lessons I mean. She'll read out while the girls work, and perhaps they will read out by turns; not lessons, you know, but stories and tales, and travels, and that kind o' book. What dost think o't?"
"'Twould be a good thing to know how to make dresses," Fanny Jones, who was fond of finery, remarked.
"And other things too," put in Peggy Martin, "and to cook too. Mother ain't a good hand at cooking and it puts feyther in such tempers, and sometimes I hardly wonder. I shall go if some others go. But be'est sure it be true, Sally?"
"Harry told me," she said, "and I think Jack Simpson told him as the schoolmaster said so."