Flack was the village carpenter.
"An' there's mother's old box as takes up the cupboard," continued
Isaac gruffly.
Bessie burst out laughing.
"Oh! yer old silly," she said. "As if they couldn't stand one top o' the t'other. Now, do just go, Isaac—there's a lovey! 'Ee's waitin' for yer. Whatever did make yer so contrairy? Of course I didn't mean nothin' I said—an' I don't mind Timothy, nor nothin'."
Still he did not move.
"Then I s'pose yer want everybody in the village to know?" he said with sarcasm.
Bessie was taken aback.
"No—I—don't—" she said undecidedly—"I don't know what yer mean."
"You go back and tell John as I'll come when it's dark, an', if he's not a stupid, he won't want me to come afore."
Bessie understood and acquiesced. She ran back with her message to
John.