TWO:"But you can't go home alone, and I can't wait wud you, surelye.""You're a liar!" cried Reuben.
TWO:"Wot's that?""He slanders my sons and he slanders my daughters," he muttered to himself as he went home, "and I reckon as this time it ?un't true."
TWO:"That's why I've got to m?ake un one, surelye."The sun set, and Reuben had given up even the attempt to work. He wandered on Boarzell till the outline of its crest was lost in the black pit of night. Then a new anxiety began to fret him. Possibly all was going well since everybody said so, butsuppose the child was a girl! Up till now he had scarcely thought of such a thing, he had made sure that his child would be a boy, someone to help him in his struggle and to[Pg 84] reap the fruits of it after he was gone. But, suppose, after all, it should be a girl! Quite probably it would bewhy should he think it would not? The sweat stood on Reuben's forehead.
TWO:Wander all the proud and dead"Yes," replied Byles; but as he spoke, he looked wistfully round, in evident trepidation.