Well, well, I must get on with her grave; they're a-coming to speak the good word over un on sundown." He might have known how this would vex and perplex me.

I could not bear to hinder him in his work--as important as any to be done by man for man--and yet it was beyond my power to go home and leave him there, and wonder what it was that he had been so afraid to tell.

So I quietly said, "Then I will wish you a very good evening again, Mr.Rigg, as you are too busy to be spoken with." And I walked off a little way, having met with men who, having begun a thing, needs must have it out, and fully expecting him to call me back.

But Jacob only touched his hat, and said, "A pleasant evening to you, ma'am." Nothing could have made me feel more resolute than this did.

I did not hesitate one moment in running back over the stile again, and demanding of Jacob Rigg that he should tell me whether he meant any thing or nothing; for I was not to be played with about important matters, like the boys in the church who were cracking nuts.
"Lord! Lord, now!" he said, with his treddled heel scraping the shoulder of his shining spade; "the longer I live in this world, the fitter I grow to get into the ways of the Lord.