You
might hurt yourself, child. You'd need have somebody to work for
you- and my arm isn't over strong.'
Silas uttered the last sentence slowly, as if it implied more
than met the ear; and Eppie, when they sat down on the bank, nestled
close to his side, and, taking hold caressingly of the arm that was
not over strong, held it on her lap, while Silas puffed again
dutifully at the pipe, which occupied his other arm. An ash in the
hedgerow behind made a fretted screen from the sun, and threw happy
playful shadows all about them.
'Father,' said Eppie, very gently, after they had been sitting in
silence a little while, 'if I was to be married, ought I to be married
with my mother's ring?'
Silas gave an almost imperceptible start, though the question
fell in with the undercurrent of thought in his own mind, and then
said, in a subdued tone, 'Why, Eppie, have you been a-thinking on it?'
'Only this last week, father,' said Eppie, ingenuously, 'since
Aaron talked to me about it.'
'And what did he say?' said Silas, still in the same subdued way,
as if he were anxious lest he should fall into the slightest tone that
was not for Eppie's good.
'He said he should like to be married, because he was a-going in
four-and-twenty, and had got a deal of gardening work, now Mr Mott's
given up; and he goes twice a-week regular to Mr Cass's, and once to
Mr Osgood's, and they're going to take him on at the Rectory.
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