When I was a boy, another boy--the pa'son's son--along with a lot of others, asked me 'Who dragged Whom round the walls of What ?' and I said, 'Sam Barrett, who dragged his wife in a chair round the tower corner when she went to be churched.' They laughed at me with such torrents of scorn that I went home ashamed, and couldn't sleep for shame; and I cried that night till my pillow was wet: till at last I thought to myself there and then--'They may laugh at me for my ignorance, but that was father's fault, and none o' my making, and I must bear it.

But they shall never laugh at my children, if I have any: I'll starve first!' Thank God, I've been able to keep her at school without sacrifice; and her scholarship is such that she stayed on as governess for a time.

Let 'em laugh now if they can: Mrs.Charmond herself is not better informed than my girl Grace." There was something between high indifference and humble emotion in his delivery, which made it difficult for them to reply.

Winterborne's interest was of a kind which did not show itself in words; listening, he stood by the fire, mechanically stirring the embers with a spar-gad.
"You'll be, then, ready, Giles ?" Melbury continued, awaking from a reverie.

"Well, what was the latest news at Shottsford yesterday, Mr.
Bawtree ?" "Well, Shottsford is Shottsford still--you can't victual your carcass there unless you've got money; and you can't buy a cup of genuine there, whether or no....But as the saying is, 'Go abroad and you'll hear news of home.' It seems that our new neighbor, this young Dr.
What's-his-name, is a strange, deep, perusing gentleman; and there's good reason for supposing he has sold his soul to the wicked one." "'Od name it all," murmured the timber-merchant, unimpressed by the news, but reminded of other things by the subject of it; "I've got to meet a gentleman this very morning?
and yet I've planned to go to Sherton Abbas for the maid." "I won't praise the doctor's wisdom till I hear what sort of bargain he's made," said the top-sawyer.
"'Tis only an old woman's tale," said Bawtree.