Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/129

VI] under the 'eerie' influence, saw the children, and received them with the most effusive affection. When I got inside, the dairyman was in the act of taking the money. "Is't for thysen, Missus, or for t' bairn?" he asked, when he had filled the jug, pausing with it in his hand.

"For t' bairn!" she said, almost reproachfully. "Think'st tha I'd touch a drop mysen, while as she hadna got her fill?"

"All right, Missus," the man replied, turning away with the jug in his hand. "Let's just mak sure it's good measure." He went back among his shelves of milk-bowls, carefully keeping his back towards her while he emptied a little measure of cream into the jug, muttering to himself "mebbe it'll hearten her up a bit, the little lassie!"

The wooman never noticed the kind deed, but took back the jug with a simple "Good evening, Master," and went her way: but the children had been more observant, and, as we followed her out, Bruno remarked "That were welly kind: and I loves that man: and if I was welly rich I'd give him a hundred poundsand a bun. That little grummeling