'Halloo! there,' said he, drawing near to the fallen table, picking up the broken jug, and swearing, because the last drops of cyder were out of it. 'What are you staring at me for, as if I were a wild beast escaped from a caravan? Curse me, body and bones, don't you know me?'
'Charles!' exclaimed Honor, 'you home, and in this condition?'
'Dash it! is that you, Honor? How you have shot up. And this you, Kate? Thunder! what a pair of pretty girls you are. Where are the rest of the panpipes? Let me see them, and get my greeting over. Lug them out of bed that I may see them. Curse it, I forget how many of them there are.'
'Seven, beside our two selves,' said Honor. 'Nine in all.'
'Let me see them. Confound it! It must be got over.'
'The rest are in bed,' said Honor. 'They must not be disturbed out of their sleep.'
'Never mind. Where is the old woman?'
'I do not know whom you mean, Charles.'
'Mother. Where is she?'
'Dead, Charles.'