A rare conqueror!
GOODY RICKBY Oh, you beauty!
DICKON And now a bit of comfort for dark days and stormy nights.
[Taking a piece of corn-cob with the kernels on it, Dickon makes a pipe, which he puts into the scarecrow’s mouth.]
So! There, Goody! I tell thee, with yonder brand-new coat and breeches of mine—those there in my cupboard!—we’ll make him a lad to be proud of.
[Taking the clothes, which Goody Rickby brings—a pair of fine scarlet breeches and a gold-embroidered coat with ruffles of lace—he puts them upon the scarecrow. Then, eying it like a connoisseur, makes a few finishing touches.]
Why, dame, he’ll be a son to thee.
GOODY RICKBY A son? Ay, if I had but a son!
DICKON Why, here you have him. [To the scarecrow.] Thou wilt scare the crows off thy mother’s corn-field— won’t my pretty? And send ’em all over t’other side the wall—to her dear neighbour’s, the Justice Gilead Merton’s.
GOODY RICKBY Justice Merton! Nay, if they’d only peck his eyes out, instead of his corn.