The gentry joked a bit sometimes.

But he was afraid of his grandson's wife, who was frowning and shaking her head.
Betty went to him, and put her hand on his arm.
"Sit down," she said, "and I will sit by you." And she sat down and showed him that she had brought a package of tobacco with her, and actually a wonder of a red and yellow jar to hold it, at the sight of which unheard-of joys his rapture was so great that his trembling hands could scarcely clasp his treasures.
"Tee-hee! Tee-hee-ee! Deary me! Thankee--thankee, my lady," he tittered, and he gazed and blinked at her beauty through heavenly tears.
"Nearly a hundred years old, and he has lived on sixteen shillings a week all his life, and earned it by working every hour between sunrise and sunset," Betty said to her sister, when she went home.

"A man has one life, and his has passed like that.

It is done now, and all the years and work have left nothing in his old hands but his pipe.

That's all.