It passed the green, with its old steps, and village pump, and the old church, dusky against the dark trees of the Hall, and still wound upwards with clashing of pans and kettles, and incessant hooting and groaning from the lads. At the top of the hill it turned round to the right, where trees looked over the wall of the Manor Farm, and in front of the red school-house before which white lilies gleamed, it came for the first time to a halt. By this time the crowd had become very much augmented, some one or two hundred being assembled now.
The procession had paused, and now were begun some fresh arrangements which appeared to indicate an intended speech, since a young man, most fiercely adorned with burnt cork smudges, mounted up on a white gate to the right hand of the house. But it was not easy to check the enthusiasm of the lads, which expressed itself in brays, and hooting, and clashing of the pans; and for some while he remained on his elevation without any possibility of making himself heard. At last, after frantic waving of his arms, some sort of silence was produced, and he began:
‘We are the Society—’
‘Go it, Bill, go it,’ cried the lads in great excitement; ‘don’t spare the langwidge, let’s have yer tongue a bit.’
‘We are the Society for preserving Pe-ace; we do-ant believe in strife betwixt man and wife; we says when a man’s bin an’ swore like to a woman—’
‘Go it, Bill, then, go it,’ shouted all the lads in chorus. ‘We’ll all support yer; give it ’em well; ’ooray!’
‘—— ye all,’ cried Bill, beginning to swear in earnest, ‘what do ye mean by interruptin’ me? I’ll leather ye when I get ye,’ cried Bill, forgetting his peacefulness; ‘ye young uns shall feel my hands, I tell ye that!’
‘Hold back there, ye fools,’ proclaimed an older man; ‘can’t ye let a man be when he sets forth to speak? There isn’t a grain o’ sense amidst the lot; one ’ud think ye were bred upon folly, and not on milk.’
‘We’re on’y supportin’ of him,’ a lad urged, sulkily, ‘we thort it ’ud do him good to have a cheer. Here, Bill, ye get up,’ for Bill was going to descend, ‘an’ we’ll let be for a while, an’ hear ye out.’
Bill ascended once more, but his ardour was gone. His speech came with abruptness, snappily, in this wise: