“I’ll go and drive cows up right enough,” said the youth; “but ye needn’t be so highty-tighty, Beck! ’Tis truth as I be a-tellin’ ’ee. Every one be a-talkin’ of it in town.”
“Dear, to be sure!” ejaculated Rebecca, partially convinced, but looking to her mistress for confirmation of the strange statement.
“It do seem queer,” returned Mrs. Meatyard; “but it’s true, Becky; and as I was a-sayin’, I think you ought to try for it. You be turned seventy, bain’t you?”
“I reckon I must be,” said the old woman, ruminating. “My hair have been white this twenty year and more, d’ye see; and I haven’t a tooth in my head. I must be a tremenjious age, sure!”
“’Tis a bit hard to tell wi’ such as you, Beck,” remarked Farmer Meatyard, contemplating her thoughtfully. “You do seem to be sich a dried-up wold stick—ah, and have been so ever since I knowed ye. Ye’ve never looked a bit different since ye come to this ’ere village. How long ago was that, can you mind?”
“Well, now, ’tis a bit hard to reckon, Master—one year do seem so like another, and the days do follow each other so fast. I lived down at Childe-Okeford till I were thirty year of age, and then when mother died I went to service, and I were ten year or thereabouts at a farm Shillingstone way, and eight year at a public, and fifteen year at another farm a mile out of Sturminster—I think ’twas fifteen year, but it mid ha’ been eighteen—and then I’ve been here the rest of the time.”
“An’ that must be twelve year or more,” put in her mistress, “for I can call to mind as Charl’ there was only just breeched when you did come.”
“Why, woman, you must be comin’ on for eighty,” cried the farmer, half-admiringly, half-disapprovingly. “Bless me, ye haven’t no business to be alive at all!”
“He, he,” chuckled Becky. “Here I be, ye see, sir; and if there’s to be a prize for wold folks, I shouldn’t wonder if I did get it.”
“I can’t call to mind anybody else in these parts as can beat ye if your tale be true,” returned he, “unless it’s Mr. Sharp’s Bithey. She be a wonderful age, now—I shouldn’t wonder if she’s turned her four score.”