"Posies of primroses! How sweet they be! You must
spare me one."
"As many as you will, sweetheart. They be all for you, whether given
or sold. And you've got a holiday for Lady-day."
"Have a care! I got my ears boxed for such a Popish word. 'Tis but
quarter day, you know, being that, hang, draw, and quarter is more to
the present folks' mind than ladies or saints. I have changed my
service, you must know, as poor Dick used to sing:--
"Have a new master, be a new man."
"You have not heard from your own folk," cried Stead, this being what
he most dreaded.
"Nay. But I can away no more with Dame Sloggett, and Cross-patch
Rachel, white seam and salmon, and plain collars. So I bade her
farewell at the end of the year, and I've got a new mistress."
Stead stood with open mouth. To change service at the end of a year
was barely creditable in those days, and to do so without
consultation with home was unkind and alarming.
"There now, don't be crooked about it. I had not time to come out
and tell you and Patience, the old crones kept me so close, stitching
at shirts for a captain that is to sail next week, and I knew you
would be coming in.
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