In age she might be between forty and fifty, but she looked much older, and her features were not at all prepossessing from a hooked nose and chin, while their sinister effect was increased by a formation of the eyes similar to that in Jennet, only more strongly noticeable in her case.

This woman was Elizabeth Device, widow of John Device, about whose death there was a mystery to be inquired into hereafter, and mother of Alizon and Jennet, though how she came to have a daughter so unlike herself in all respects as the former, no one could conceive; but so it was.
"Soh, ye ha donned your finery at last, Alizon," said Elizabeth.

"Your brother Jem has just run up to say that t' rush-cart has set out, and that Robin Hood and his merry men are comin' for their Queen." "And their Queen is quite ready for them," replied Alizon, moving towards the door.
"Neigh, let's ha' a look at ye fust, wench," cried Elizabeth, staying her; "fine fitthers may fine brids--ey warrant me now yo'n getten these May gewgaws on, yo fancy yourself a queen in arnest." "A queen of a day, mother; a queen of a little village festival; nothing more," replied Alizon.

"Oh, if I were a queen in right earnest, or even a great lady--" "Whot would yo do ?" demanded Elizabeth Device, sourly.
"I'd make you rich, mother, and build you a grand house to live in," replied Alizon; "much grander than Browsholme, or Downham, or Middleton." "Pity yo're nah a queen then, Alizon," replied Elizabeth, relaxing her harsh features into a wintry smile.
"Whot would ye do fo me, Alizon, if ye were a queen ?" asked little Jennet, looking up at her.
"Why, let me see," was the reply; "I'd indulge every one of your whims and wishes.

You should only need ask to have." "Poh--poh--yo'd never content her," observed Elizabeth, testily.
"It's nah your way to try an content me, mother, even whon ye might," rejoined Jennet, who, if she loved few people, loved her mother least of all, and never lost an opportunity of testifying her dislike to her.
"Awt o'pontee, little wasp," cried her mother; "theaw desarves nowt boh whot theaw dustna get often enough--a good whipping." "Yo hanna towd us whot yo'd do fo yurself if yo war a great lady, Alizon ?" interposed Susan.
"Oh, I haven't thought about myself," replied the other, laughing.
"Ey con tell ye what she'd do, Suky," replied little Jennet, knowingly; "she'd marry Master Richard Assheton, o' Middleton." "Jennet!" exclaimed Alizon, blushing crimson.
"It's true," replied the little girl; "ye knoa ye would, Alizon, Look at her feace," she added, with a screaming laugh.
"Howd te tongue, little plague," cried Elizabeth, rapping her knuckles with her stick, "and behave thyself, or theaw shanna go out to t' wake." Jennet dealt her mother a bitterly vindictive look, but she neither uttered cry, nor made remark.
In the momentary silence that ensued the blithe jingling of bells was heard, accompanied by the merry sound of tabor and pipe.
"Ah! here come the rush-cart and the morris-dancers," cried Alizon, rushing joyously to the window, which, being left partly open, admitted the scent of the woodbine and eglantine by which it was overgrown, as well as the humming sound of the bees by which the flowers were invaded.
Almost immediately afterwards a frolic troop, like a band of masquers, approached the cottage, and drew up before it, while the jingling of bells ceasing at the same moment, told that the rush-cart had stopped likewise.