“Well, I’ll tell ye what I’ll do,” he cried; “there’s one way I mid take ye back wi’out breakin’ my word. I said I’d make an example of ’ee, an’ dalled if I don’t do it. There, I’ll take ye back at same wage as before if ye’ll turn teetotal.”
If Jess’s expression had been pathetic before, it was downright tragic now; he stood silent, with goggling eyes and a dropping jaw.
“Ye see,” resumed the farmer confidentially, “’twas the beer—or the wish for it what did bring all this trouble upon ye. If ye pledge yourself to drink no beer ye can’t wish for it.”
Jess however was dubious on this point.
“’Twill be sich a disgrace,” he stammered presently.
“Disgrace!” repeated the farmer. “Nothin’ o’ the kind! Ye’ll be an example to the men, I tell ’ee—they’ll be all a-lookin’ up to ’ee, an’ a-praisin’ ’ee.”
Jess’s countenance cleared in some slight measure; he took the rake which his master proffered him, in silence, and forthwith fell to work with great vigour and goodwill.
Jim Stuckey, jingling past with the hay-rake, halted beside him.
“Be come to help again?” he asked, with a grin. Domeny looked back at him solemnly.
“I b’ain’t on strike no more,” he observed. “I’ve a-come to my senses again, an’ I’ve a-come back to work. I be come,” he added, straightening his back, and raising his voice for the benefit of the others; “I be come to set ye all an example. I be a-goin’, Jim, for to give up drink altogether. I be a-goin’ for to turn teetotal.”