“For shame,” cried Oliver, “when you know she has lost her stockings and her cloak already! And all out of kindness! I would not drink a drop of her cherry-brandy, I am sure.”
“Then you shall, Oliver, for saying so, and taking my part,” said Ailwin. “I am not going to give it to anyone else that has not the ague; some people may be assured of that.”
“If I thought there was any cherry-brandy for me when I came back,” said the man, throwing a stone down to try the nature of the bog-ground beneath, “I would get below there, and try what I could find. I might lay hold of a linsey-woolsey cloak somewhere in the bog.”
“You can never catch the Redfurns, I doubt,” said Ailwin. “What was it they said to you, Oliver, as they were going off?”
“They laughed at me for not being able to catch eels, and asked how I thought I should catch them. They said when I could decoy wild-fowl, I might set a trap for the Redfurns. But it does not follow that that is all true because they said it. I don’t see but they might be caught if there was anyone to do us justice afterwards. That’s the worst part of it, father says.”
“There’s father!” cried Mildred, as the crack of a whip was heard. All started off, as if to see who could carry bad news fastest. All arrived in the yard together, except Ailwin, who turned back to take up George, as he roared at being left behind.
“We must want a wise head or two among us,” said the vexed miller. “If we were as sharp as these times require, we surely could not be at the mercy of folk we should scorn to be like. We must give more heed and see what is to be done.”
“Rather late for that, neighbour, when here is the stock you were grinding and grinding for a week, all gone to plaster,” said one of Gool’s men.
“That is what I say,” replied the miller, contemplating the waste; “but it may be better late than not at all.”
Mrs Linacre was more affected than her husband by what had happened. When she came home, poor Mildred’s fortitude had just given way, and she was crying over the body of her dear white hen. This caused Ailwin’s eyes to fill at the thought of her stockings and cloak, so that the family faces looked cheerless enough.