Oi ha' had hard work to keep back the tears, old though oi be, and oi a cropper." "You are just as soft hearted as I am, feyther, every bit, so don't pretend you are not;" and indeed upon the previous day Luke Marner had broken down even more completely than Mary.

He had followed the funeral at a short distance, keeping with Mary aloof from the crowd; but when all was over, and the churchyard was left in quiet again, Luke had gone and stood by the still open grave of the man who had given his life for his child's, and had stood there with the tears streaming down his cheeks, and his strong frame so shaken by emotion that Polly had been forced to dry her own eyes and stifle her sobs, and to lead him quietly away.
"Strange, bain't it, lass; feyther and son seem mixed up with Varley.
First the lad has a foight wi' Bill Swinton, and braakes the boy's leg; then t' feyther sends oop all sorts o' things to Bill, and his son comes up here and gets as friendly with Bill as if he were his brother, and gets to know you, and many another in the village.

Then our Jane goes down into t' town and would ha' lost her life if captain he hadn't been passing by and saaved her.

Then he gets killed.

Just gived his life for hearn.