"Uncle," said the poor man, dejectedly.
"I suppose you've been drinking, as usual; you stink of spirits."
"Spirits, in sooth! when I haven't a penny to bless me."
"Oh, if it's only a blessing you want, here, take one and go!"
And the priest lifted up his thumb and the two fingers, and uttered something like "Dominus vobiscum," and then waved him off; whilst the old shrew skulking near him uttered a croaking kind of laugh, and said that a priest's blessing was a priceless boon.
"Yes," replied the smith, "upon a full stomach; but my children have gone to bed supperless, and I haven't had a crust of bread the whole of the day."
"'Man shall not live by bread alone,' the Scriptures say, and you ought to know that if you are a Christian, sir."
"Eh? I daresay the Scriptures are right, for priests surely do not live on bread alone; they fatten on plump pullets and crisp pork-pies."
"Do you mean to bully me, you unbelieving beggar?"
"Bully you, uncle!" said the burly man, in a piteous tone; "only think of my starving children."