‘An' aw sometimes think there's summat very like th' Almeety i' th' hills.’
‘Doesto, Matt? Ey, aw shouldn't like to think He were so far off as they are, nor as cowd (cold) noather.’
‘Nay, lass, they're noan so far off. Didn't owd David say, “As th' mountens are raand abaat Jerusalem, so th' Lord is raand abaat His people”?’
‘He did, forsure. But didn't he say that a good man were like a tree planted by th' brookside?’
‘Yi; and he said summat else abaat a good woman, didn't he, Miriam?’
‘What were that, lad?’
‘Why, didn't th' owd songster say, “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by th' sides o' thine house, and thi childer like olive plants raand abaat thy table”?’
Miriam blushed, and held up her lips to be kissed; nor did Matt faintly warm them with his caresses.