'Be quiet, wi' the', Sylvia? Thou'st splashing me all ower, and my

feyther'll noane be so keen o' giving me a new cloak as thine is,

seemingly.' Sylvia was quiet, not to say penitent, in a moment. She drew up her

feet instantly; and, as if to take herself out of temptation, she

turned away from Molly to that side of her stony seat on which the

current ran shallow, and broken by pebbles. But once disturbed in

her play, her thoughts reverted to the great subject of the cloak.

She was now as still as a minute before she had been full of frolic

and gambolling life. She had tucked herself up on the stone, as if

it had been a cushion, and she a little sultana.

Molly was deliberately washing her feet and drawing on her

stockings, when she heard a sudden sigh, and her companion turned

round so as to face her, and said, 'I wish mother hadn't spoken up for t' gray.'

'Why, Sylvia, thou wert saying as we topped t'brow, as she did

nought but bid thee think twice afore settling on scarlet.'

'Ay! but mother's words are scarce, and weigh heavy. Feyther's liker

me, and we talk a deal o' rubble; but mother's words are liker to

hewn stone. She puts a deal o' meaning in 'em. And then,' said

Sylvia, as if she was put out by the suggestion, 'she bid me ask

cousin Philip for his opinion. I hate a man as has getten an opinion

on such-like things.'

'Well! we shall niver get to Monkshaven this day, either for to sell

our eggs and stuff, or to buy thy cloak, if we're sittin' here much

longer. T' sun's for slanting low, so come along, lass, and let's be

going.' 'But if I put on my stockings and shoon here, and jump back into yon

wet gravel, I 'se not be fit to be seen,' said Sylvia, in a pathetic

tone of bewilderment, that was funnily childlike. She stood up, her

bare feet curved round the curving surface of the stone, her slight

figure balancing as if in act to spring.

'Thou knows thou'll have just to jump back barefoot, and wash thy

feet afresh, without making all that ado; thou shouldst ha' done it

at first, like me, and all other sensible folk. But thou'st getten

no gumption.'

Molly's mouth was stopped by Sylvia's hand. She was already on the

river bank by her friend's side.

'Now dunnot lecture me; I'm none for a sermon hung on every peg o'

words. I'm going to have a new cloak, lass, and I cannot heed thee

if thou dost lecture. Thou shall have all the gumption, and I'll

have my cloak.' It may be doubted whether Molly thought this an equal division.




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