“Oh, faith, Becky, the case is goin’ again’ you!” shouted Charl’. “If ye said that, it shows plain as you was treatin’ Bithey respectful like, you bein’ the youngest.”
“God forgive you, Bithey!” ejaculated the dairywoman. “Have you no conscience at all? I say sich a thing! I offer to carry lard for you! ’Twas never my way to go in for payin’ compliments to folks, and I’d always plenty to do wi’out makin’ out more work for myself.”
“Come, come,” cried a fat, good-natured man who had drawn near, “don’t be fallin’ out on a Sunday! There must be some way of knowin’ your ages. Let’s see how far back you can remember, and maybe that’ll tell us summat. Can ye mind when Rectory chimbley was blowed down? I were a little chap myself then, but I can remember it.”
“Nay, that was afore my day,” said Becky, much crestfallen. “I’ve only been here a matter of twelve or fifteen year.”
“I can mind it,” cried Bithey eagerly. “I can mind it so well as if it were yesterday. I had my sampler in my hand, and when my mother did call out I run the needle very nigh an inch into my finger.”
“Then you was a little gurl, for sure!” exclaimed Rebecca triumphantly. “Ye must ha’ been quite a young maid, else ye wouldn’t ha’ been workin’ on a sampler. What year was that, Mr. Joyce?”
“Let’s see,” said Mr. Joyce meditatively. “’Twas in the year ’48, I think—’ees, I’m very near sure ’twas ’48.”
“An’ say you was ten year old then, Bithey,” went on the other claimant, with increasing animation, “say you was ten or twelve—you couldn’t ha’ been much more, else you’d ha’ had more sense nor to be working samplers—well, ’tis but a little over fifty year ago—that ’ud leave ye not much more nor sixty. Ye haven’t wore so very well, I d’ ’low; but there, ’tis plain sixty’s your age.”
“I feel sure I’m a deal more nor sixty,” protested Bithey, almost in tears. “Now I think on’t, ’twasn’t when Rectory chimbley was blowed down as I did run needle into my finger; ’twas when Mr. Sharp’s roof took fire. Can you mind when Mr. Sharp’s thatch took fire, Mr. Joyce?”
“Nay, nay, ’twas long afore my time.”