'Dear! and are you going to dine at Thornton's at Marlborough

Mills?' 'Yes, Bessy. Why are you so surprised?'

'Oh, I dunno. But they visit wi' a' th' first folk in Milton.' 'And you don't think we're quite the first folk in Milton, eh,

Bessy?' Bessy's cheeks flushed a little at her thought being thus

easily read.

'Well,' said she, 'yo' see, they thinken a deal o' money here and

I reckon yo've not getten much.' 'No,' said Margaret, 'that's very true. But we are educated

people, and have lived amongst educated people. Is there anything

so wonderful, in our being asked out to dinner by a man who owns

himself inferior to my father by coming to him to be instructed?

I don't mean to blame Mr. Thornton. Few drapers' assistants, as

he was once, could have made themselves what he is.' 'But can yo' give dinners back, in yo'r small house? Thornton's

house is three times as big.' 'Well, I think we could manage to give Mr. Thornton a dinner

back, as you call it. Perhaps not in such a large room, nor with

so many people. But I don't think we've thought about it at all

in that way.' 'I never thought yo'd be dining with Thorntons,' repeated I

Bessy. 'Why, the mayor hissel' dines there; and the members of

Parliament and all.' 'I think I could support the honour of meeting the mayor of

Milton.

'But them ladies dress so grand!' said Bessy, with an anxious

look at Margaret's print gown, which her Milton eyes appraised at

sevenpence a yard. Margaret's face dimpled up into a merry laugh.

'Thank You, Bessy, for thinking so kindly about my looking nice

among all the smart people. But I've plenty of grand gowns,--a

week ago, I should have said they were far too grand for anything

I should ever want again. But as I'm to dine at Mr. Thornton's,

and perhaps to meet the mayor, I shall put on my very best gown,

you may be sure.' 'What win yo' wear?' asked Bessy, somewhat relieved.

'White silk,' said Margaret. 'A gown I had for a cousin's

wedding, a year ago.

'That'll do!' said Bessy, falling back in her chair. 'I should be

loth to have yo' looked down upon.

'Oh! I'll be fine enough, if that will save me from being looked

down upon in Milton.' 'I wish I could see you dressed up,' said Bessy. 'I reckon, yo're

not what folk would ca' pretty; yo've not red and white enough

for that. But dun yo' know, I ha' dreamt of yo', long afore ever

I seed yo'.' 'Nonsense, Bessy!' 'Ay, but I did. Yo'r very face,--looking wi' yo'r clear steadfast

eyes out o' th' darkness, wi' yo'r hair blown off from yo'r brow,

and going out like rays round yo'r forehead, which was just as

smooth and as straight as it is now,--and yo' always came to give

me strength, which I seemed to gather out o' yo'r deep comforting

eyes,--and yo' were drest in shining raiment--just as yo'r going

to be drest. So, yo' see, it was yo'!' 'Nay, Bessy,' said Margaret, gently, 'it was but a dream.' 'And why might na I dream a dream in my affliction as well as

others? Did not many a one i' the Bible? Ay, and see visions too!

Why, even my father thinks a deal o' dreams! I tell yo' again, I

saw yo' as plainly, coming swiftly towards me, wi' yo'r hair

blown back wi' the very swiftness o' the motion, just like the

way it grows, a little standing off like; and the white shining

dress on yo've getten to wear. Let me come and see yo' in it. I

want to see yo' and touch yo' as in very deed yo' were in my

dream.' 'My dear Bessy, it is quite a fancy of yours.' 'Fancy or no fancy,--yo've come, as I knew yo' would, when I saw

yo'r movement in my dream,--and when yo're here about me, I

reckon I feel easier in my mind, and comforted, just as a fire

comforts one on a dree day. Yo' said it were on th' twenty-first;

please God, I'll come and see yo'.' 'Oh Bessy! you may come and welcome; but don't talk so--it really

makes me sorry. It does indeed.' 'Then I'll keep it to mysel', if I bite my tongue out. Not but

what it's true for all that.' Margaret was silent. At last she said, 'Let us talk about it sometimes, if you think it true. But not

now. Tell me, has your father turned out?' 'Ay!' said Bessy, heavily--in a manner very different from that

she had spoken in but a minute or two before. 'He and many

another,--all Hamper's men,--and many a one besides. Th' women

are as bad as th' men, in their savageness, this time. Food is

high,--and they mun have food for their childer, I reckon.

Suppose Thorntons sent 'em their dinner out,--th' same money,

spent on potatoes and meal, would keep many a crying babby quiet,

and hush up its mother's heart for a bit!' 'Don't speak so!' said Margaret. 'You'll make me feel wicked and

guilty in going to this dinner.' 'No!' said Bessy. 'Some's pre-elected to sumptuous feasts, and

purple and fine linen,--may be yo're one on 'em. Others toil and

moil all their lives long--and the very dogs are not pitiful in

our days, as they were in the days of Lazarus. But if yo' ask me

to cool yo'r tongue wi' th' tip of my finger, I'll come across

the great gulf to yo' just for th' thought o' what yo've been to

me here.' 'Bessy! you're very feverish! I can tell it in the touch of your

hand, as well as in what you're saying. It won't be division

enough, in that awful day, that some of us have been beggars

here, and some of us have been rich,--we shall not be judged by

that poor accident, but by our faithful following of Christ.'

Margaret got up, and found some water and soaking her

pocket-handkerchief in it, she laid the cool wetness on Bessy's

forehead, and began to chafe the stone-cold feet. Bessy shut her

eyes, and allowed herself to be soothed. At last she said, 'Yo'd ha' been deaved out o' yo'r five wits, as well as me, if

yo'd had one body after another coming in to ask for father, and

staying to tell me each one their tale. Some spoke o' deadly

hatred, and made my blood run cold wi' the terrible things they

said o' th' masters,--but more, being women, kept plaining,

plaining (wi' the tears running down their cheeks, and never

wiped away, nor heeded), of the price o' meat, and how their

childer could na sleep at nights for th' hunger.' 'And do they think the strike will mend this?' asked Margaret.




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