'Lor no, sir, him's a furriner; why, his skin's as brown as a berry!'
'Is he a gipsy, do you think?'
'I ain't sure o' that, but him can talk their patter; and when the gipsies come this way him and them is as thick as thaves.'
'I see—half a gipsy and half a foreigner, and altogether a rover, I suppose. Well, I'm glad he gives you a little instruction and amusement now and then, and I hope he'll find the way to keep you out of the public-house,' said Mr. Jardine.
'Why, you see, parson, a man must have his mug o' beer; but it's summot to the good if he don't sit down over it and make it three or four mugs o' beer. There ain't been so much sitting down since Cheap Jack comed among us.'
'Isn't that a desolate hovel up on the hill where he lives sometimes?'
'It was oncommon deserlate till Cheap Jack took it in hand; there ain't a owl in the wood that would have liked to live in it; but Jack hammers a bit of wood here, and a plank there, and a bit o' matting up agen the walls, and puts in a stove from Petersfield, and makes it as snug as a burd's nest. I've smoked many a pipe with him alongside that stove, and drank many a cup o' coffee. That's Jack's drink—not a drain o' beer or sperrits ever goes inside o' he.'
'That accounts for the money in the stocking,' said Bessie.
The rustic shook his head dubiously.
'Him ain't got no childer,' he said. 'It's them as makes the coin go.'