Miss Sarti found him lying dead, and I think the shock has affected her mind.' 'Eh, dear! that fine young gentlemen as was to be th' heir, as Dannel told me about.

I remember seein' him when he was a little un, a-visitin' at the Manor.

Well-a-day, what a grief to his honour and my lady.

But that poor Miss Tina--an' she found him a-lyin' dead?
O dear, O dear!' Dorcas had led the way into the best kitchen, as charming a room as best kitchens used to be in farmhouses which had no parlours--the fire reflected in a bright row of pewter plates and dishes; the sand-scoured deal tables so clean you longed to stroke them; the salt-coffer in one chimney-corner, and a three-cornered chair in the other, the walls behind handsomely tapestried with flitches of bacon, and the ceiling ornamented with pendent hams.
'Sit ye down, sir--do,' said Dorcas, moving the three-cornered chair, 'an' let me get you somethin' after your long journey.

Here, Becky, come an' tek the baby.' Becky, a red-armed damsel, emerged from the adjoining back-kitchen, and possessed herself of baby, whose feelings or fat made him conveniently apathetic under the transference.
'What'll you please to tek, sir, as I can give you?
I'll get you a rasher o' bacon i' no time, an' I've got some tea, or be-like you'd tek a glass o' rum-an'-water.