Page:Eliot - Adam Bede, vol. II, 1859.djvu/91

Rh within hearing; so he knocked on the door and said in is strong voice, "Mrs Poyser within?"

"Come in, Mr Bede, come in," Mrs Poyser called out from the dairy. She always gave Adam this title when she received him in her own house. "You may come into the dairy if you will, for I canna justly leave the cheese."

Adam walked into the dairy, where Mrs Poyser and Nancy were crushing the first evening cheese.

"Why, you might think you war come to a dead house," said Mrs Poyser, as he stood in the open doorway; "they're all i' the meadow; but Martin's sure to be in afore long, for they're leaving the hay cocked to-night, ready for carrying first thing to-morrow. I've been forced t' have Nancy in, upo' 'count as Hetty must gether the red currants to-night: the fruit allays ripens so contrairy, just when ivery hand's wanted. An' there's no trustin' the children to gether it, for they put more into their own mouths nor into the basket; you might as well set the wasps to gether the fruit."

Adam longed to say he would go into the garden till Mr Poyser came in, but he was not quite courageous enough, so he said, "I could be looking at your spinning-wheel, then, and see what wants doing