Sam blushed and dropped his eyes, looking flustered and perturbed.
"Were you not bidden never to go there again?" Dick continued. "Didn't I say I'd break your head for you if you disobeyed?"
"Iss, you did so," said Sam ruefully. "Ah, well, you'm better do it and get it over."
"What were you doing there?" said Dick, still holding the gate.
Sam looked sidelong, shuffled his feet, then, as with a great effort, replied:
"I didn' go to sell eggs, nor nawthin' o' that sort. If you must haul it out of a poor feller, I rambled there to——"
"Well?"
"To see maidy Susan; now I've said it."
"Then you're a silly ass. She's years older than you. What does a maid of twenty want with a boy of sixteen?"
"Twenty she is, and sixteen be I, but I've a deal more wisdom in my noddle than she, arter all. She's a simple soul about pilchurs, and night-lines, and buildin' boats, and all sorts o' famous things I've knowed since I wer table-high, and she do have a tarrible thirst for high knowledge. She've a clever little head-piece, too, for when I wer tellin' to she how pretty 'tis to see a otter divin' for fish, who should come up-along but Doubledick——"