Under the Greenwood Tree

r that most delightful of country-d

‘twould be a right and proper plan for every mortal man i

hing but strip will go down with you when

ce and get hot as fire; therefore you lighten your clothes. Isn’t that nature and reason for gentle and simple? If I strip by myself and not necessary, ’tis rather

soon reappeared, marching in close column, with flapping shirt-sleeves, and having, as common to them all, a general glance of being now a match for any man or dancer in Eng

to himself, his arm holding her waist more firmly each time, and his elbow getting further and further behind her back, till the distance reached was rather noticeable; and, most blissful, swinging to places shoulder to shoulder, her breath curling round his neck like a summer zephyr that had strayed from its proper date. Threading the couples one by one they reached the bottom, when there arose in Dick’s mind a minor misery lest the tune should end before they could work their way to the top again, and have anew the same exciting run down through. Dick’s feelings on actually reaching the top in spite of his doubts were supplemented by a mortal fear that the fiddling might even stop at this supreme moment; which prompted him to convey a stealthy whisper to the far-gone musicians, to the effect that they

finest stream of vapour that a man’s lips could form. “A regular tightener, that on

’t been in such a thumping state of uproar since I used to sit

thout lifting his eyes from the cup he was filling. Being now engaged in the business of handing round re

to pass then,” continued Mrs. Penny. “Ah, the first spirit ever I see on a

ve fancied,” sa

, quite determined to see if John Wildway was going to marry me or no. I put the bread-and-cheese and beer quite ready, as the witch’s book ordered, and I opened the door, and I waited till the clock struck twelve, my nerves all

althily enlarged h

air-sized man, and I couldn’t believe that any such a little small man had anything to do wi’ me, as anybody might. Bu

particular about little an

ll, to cut a long story short, by-long and by-late, John Wildway and I had a miff and parted; and lo and behold, the co

er in your life; but I mid be mis

ill let them stay idling on the past scenes just related, which were apparently

y no relation whatever to the conversation of their guests, but much to their sustenance. A conclusion of some kind having at length been drawn, the palpable confederacy of man and wife was once more obliterated, the tranter marching o

ary to expect suppers on these occasions; going even further than this politeness of feature, and starting irrelevant subjects, the exceeding flatness and f

ss into his own, touching him with fur that had touched her hand a moment before. There were, besides, some little pleasures in the shape of helping her to vegetable she didn’t want, and when it had nearly alighted on her plate taking it across for his own use, on the plea of waste not, want not. He also, from time to time, sipped sweet sly glances at her profile; n

arpness that her position as village sharpener demanded, to the contrast

ty,” said the tranter; “except, in faith, as regards father there. Never s

ss from his distant chair a

erbridge. It fairly made my hair creep and fidget about like a vlock of sheep — ah, it did, souls! And when they had done, and the last trump had sounded, and

old William, who was in the act of filling his mouth; “he’d starve to de

ooks performed a circuit from the wall opposite him to the ceiling overhead. Then clearing the other corner of his throat: “Once I was a-setting in the little kitchen of the Dree Mariners at Casterbridge, having a bit of dinner, and a brass band struck up in the street. Such a beautiful band as that were! I was setting eat

of,” said grandfather James, with the absen

s then,” said Mrs. Dewy. “They are qui

idn’t know where to begin, which gradually settled to an expression that it

to be true. And for the same reason, I like a story with a bad moral. My sonnies, all true stories have a coarse touch or a bad moral, depend upon’t. If the story-tellers could ha

ble I have to keep that man barely respectable. And did you ever hear too — just now at supper-time — talking about ‘taties’ with Michael in such a work-folk way. Well, ’tis what I was never brought up to!

stairs wrapped up and looking altogether a different person from whom she had been hitherto, in fact (to Dick’s sadness and disappointment), a woman somewhat reserved and of a phlegmatic temperament

past evening touchable, squeezeable — even kissable! For whole half-hours I held her so chose to me that not a sheet of paper could have been shipped between us; and I could feel her heart only just outside my own, he

with a total disregard of Dick’s emotions, and in tones which were certainly not frigid — that he (Shiner) was not the man to go to bed before seeing his Lady Fair safe within her own door — not he, nobody should say he was that; — and that he would not leave her side an inch till the

ful of elder wine at the bottom that she couldn’t drink by trying ever so hard, in obedience to the mighty arguments of the tranter (his hand coming down upon her shoulder th

t alone again face to face. His father seemed quite offensive for appearing to be in just as high spirits as when the guest

njoy a quiet meal now! A slice of this here ham — neither too fat nor too lean — so; and then a drop of this vinegar and pickles — there, t

ght of heavy work next day! What with the dirty plates, and knives and forks, and dust and smother, and bits kicked off your furniture, and I don’t know what all, why a body could a’most wish there were no such

chopping away with his knife and fork as if he were felling trees. “Ann, you may as well go on to bed at once, and not bide there making such sleepy faces; you look as long-favo

matron passed her hand across her eyes to bru

fe that dear impossible Fancy, he and she would never be so dreadfully practical and undemonstrative of the Passion as his father and moth