“Then how do you date the boy’s age with such precision?”
The nurse now sidled confidently to the front.
“If it please your honour’s worship, aw wur called to stiff-backed Nan’s dowter in the last pinch, when hoo wur loike to die, an’ that little chap wur born afore aw left, an’ that wur o’ th’ fifth o’ May, seventeen hunderd an’ noinety-noine. Aw know it, fur aw broke mi arm th’ varry next day.”
“And the mother died.”
“Yea!—afore the week wur eawt.”
“And you think she was lawfully married? Where was her husband?”
“Ay! that’s it! Hoo had a guinea-goold weddin-ring on; an’ owd Nan said it wur a sad thing th’ lass had ever got wedded, an’ moore o’ the same soort. An’ aw geet eawt o’ her that they’n bin wedded at Crumpsail, an’ a’ th’ neebors knew as th’ husbant had had a letter to fatch him to Liverpool, an’ had niver come back. Onybody i’ Smedley knows that!”
“And you think they were honest, industrious people?”
“Ay, that they were, but rayther stiff i’ th’ joints, yo’ know—seemed to think theirsel’s too good to talk to folk like; or mebbe we’d ha’ known th’ lad’s neäme an’ o’ belongin’ to him. They owed nobbody nowt, an’ aw wur paid fur moi job.”
Jabez was called forward and examined, and he came pretty well out of the fire. They found that he could read a little, knew part of his catechism, and they saw that he was a well-behaved, intelligent boy, with truthful dark grey eyes and a reflective brow.