Stick that in thy gizzern, and don't thoo go bumman aboot like a bee in a bottle--thoo Judas, thoo." Mr.Garth was undoubtedly taken by surprise this time.

To be attacked in such a way by the very person he meant to attack, to be accounted the injurer by the very person who, he thought, had injured him, sufficed to stagger the blacksmith's dull brains.
"Nay, nay," he said, when he had recovered his breath; "who's the Judas ?--that's a 'batable point, I reckon." "Giss!" cried Liza, without waiting to comprehend the significance of the insinuation, and--like a true woman--not dreaming that a charge of disloyalty could be advanced against her,--"giss! giss!"-- the call to swine--"thoo'rt thy mother's awn son--the witch." Utterly deprived of speech by this maidenly outburst of vituperation, Mr.Garth lost all that self-control which his quieter judgment had recognized as probably necessary to the safety of his own person.
White with anger, he raised his hand to strike Liza, who thereupon drew up, and, giving him a vigorous slap on each cheek, said, "Keep thy neb oot of that, thoo bummeller, and go fratch with Robbie Anderson--I hear he dinged thee ower, thoo sow-faced 'un." The mention of this name served as a timely reminder to Mr.Garth, who dropped his arm and rode away, muttering savagely under his breath.
"Don't come hankerin' after me again," cried Liza (rather unnecessarily) after his vanishing figure.
This outburst was at least serviceable in discharging all the ill-nature from the girl's breast; and when she had watched the blacksmith until he had disappeared, she replied to Rotha's remonstrances as so much scarcely girl-like abuse by a burst of the heartiest girlish laughter.
* * * * * There was much commotion at the Red Lion that night.

The "maister men" who had left the funeral procession at Watendlath made their way first to the village inn, intending to spend there the hours that must intervene before the return of the mourners to Shoulthwaite.

They had not been long seated over their pots when the premature arrival of John Jackson and some of the other dalesmen who had been "sett" on the way to Gosforth led to an explanation of the disaster that had occurred on the pass.

The consternation of the frequenters of the Red Lion, as of the citizens of Wythburn generally, was as great as their surprise.