"Wot, fäather?"
"Them's Albert's verses right enough?"
"Yes, fäather, but——"
"Fetch him here."
Tilly was more frightened than ever. She had never heard anything about the great Gate controversy, and could not understand why Reuben was so angry with Albert. The verses seemed to her quite harmless, they were not even about love. However, she could not disobey her father, so she ran and fetched Albert out of the corn-chamber, begging him to be careful what he said, "fur fäather's unaccountable vrothered to-night about something."
"How did the Election go?"
"I never asked."
"Oh, you gals! Well, I expect that's wot's the matter. The Liberal's got in."
"But why should that mäake fäather angry wud you?"
Albert stuck out his chest and looked important, as he invariably did before an encounter with Reuben, in spite of the fact that these always ended most ingloriously as far as he was concerned.