The parson arrives, and the table is spread—all this was acted in farm-houses. The wife says:—
“My husband, Richard Malvine, is forth,
A journey afar doth roam,
A bottle to fetch of the water fresh
Of the Well of Absalom.”
Then the parson sits down and eats with the wife, and there is much fun, somewhat broad—when out of the sack in the chimney-back jumps Richard Malvine, and he shouts:—
“‘Now into the sack, as I’m Richard Malvine,
Or thy blood, Sir Priest, I will take!
O good my lady and gentleman,