“And all the same to you if he was, I suppose!” said Chirk. “Think, now! Didn’t he ever leave you to mind the gate before?”
“Ay. He did when he went to market, or the Blue Boar.”
“Did he leave you all night?”
“No,” Ben muttered, hanging his head.
“Benny!” said Chirk warningly. “You know what’ll happen to you if you tell me any more bouncers, don’t you?”
“Me dad said I wasn’t to tell no one, else he’d break every bone in me body!” said Ben desperately.
“Well, I won’t squeak on you, so he won’t know you whiddled the scrap. And if you don’t, I’ll break every bone in your body, so you won’t be any better off,” said Chirk calmly. “This ain’t the first time your dad’s loped off, is it?”
“Yes, it is!” Ben asseverated. “Only onct, before, he went off and told me to mind the gate in the night, and if anyone was to ask where he was he said to tell ’em he was laid down on his bed with a touch o’ the colic! And he come back before it was morning, honest he did!”
“Where did he go to?”
“I dunno! It was dark, and he woke me up—’least, he didn’t, ’cos there was a waggon, or something, went through the gate, and that woke me. And me dad said as I was to sit by the fire in here till he come back, and to keep me chaffer close, ’cos he was going out.”