last time, and then, exchanging a nod with Ham, whose eye he caught, proceeded as before.

‘Well! I counsels him to speak to Em’ly. He’s big enough, but he’s bashfuller than a little un, and he don’t like. So I speak. “What! Him!” says Em’ly. “Him that I’ve know’d so intimate so many years, and like so much.

Oh, Uncle! I never can have him. He’s such a good fellow!” I gives her a kiss, and I says no more to her than, “My dear, you’re right to speak out, you’re to choose for yourself, you’re as free as a little bird.” Then I aways to him, and I says, “I wish it could have been so, but it can’t. But you can both be as you was, and wot I say to you is, Be as you was with her, like a man.”