“Coorse you will, and not stand chattering there. But I'm laving you dry, Pete. Is it ale you'll have, or a drop of hard stuff? You'll wait for Kate? Now I like that. There's some life at these totallers. 'Steady abroad?' How dare you, Nancy Joe? You're a deal too clever. Of course he's been steady abroad—steady as a gun.”
“But Kate,” said Pete, tramping the sanded floor, “is she changed at all?”
“Aw, she's a woman now, boy,” said Grannie.
“Bless my soul!” said Pete.
“She was looking a bit white and narvous one while there, but she's sprung out of it fresh and bright, same as the ling on the mountains. Well, that's the way with young women.”
“I know,” said Pete. “Just the break of the morning with the darlings.”
“But she's the best-looking girl on the island now, Pete,” said Nancy Joe.
“I'll go bail on it,” cried Pete.
“Big and fine and rosy, and fit for anything.”
“Bless my heart!”