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"Preaching on the Green!" said Mr Irwine, looking surprised but quite serene "What, that pale pretty young woman I've seen at Poyser's? I saw she was a Methodist, or Quaker, or so of that sort, by her dress, but I didn't know she was a preacher"

"It's a true word as I say, sir," rejoined Mr Rann, co enough to indicate three notes of exclaht; an' she's laid hold of Chad's Bess, as the girl's been i' fits welly iver sin'"

"Well, Bessy Cranage is a hearty-looking lass; I daresay she'll coo into fits?"

"No, sir, I canna say as they did But there's no knohat'll cooin' on ivery week--there'll be no livin' i' th' village For the o' drink extry, an' o to hell for't as sure as they're born I'm not a tipplin' man nor a drunkard--nobody can say it on me--but I like a extry quart at Easter or Christin', an' folks offer't you for nothin'; or when I'm a-collectin' the dues; an' I like a pint wi' hbourly chat at Mester Casson's now an' then, for I was brought up i' the Church, thank God, an' ha' been a parish clerk this two-an'-thirty year: I should knohat the church religion is"

"Well, what's your advice, Joshua? What do you think should be done?"

"Well, Your Reverence, I' woh if she'd let alone preachin'; an' I hear as she's a-goin' away back to her own country soon She's Mr Poyser's own niece, an' I donna wish to say what's anyways disrespectful o' th' family at th' Hall Far, welly iver sin' I've been a shoeeousest Methodis as can be, an' Iwoin' other folks to preach from Treddles'on, if his comb isn't cut a bit; an' I think as he should be let know as he isna t' have the makin' an' mendin' o' church carts an' implemen's, let alone stayin' i' that house an' yard as is Squire Donnithorne's"

"Well, but you say yourself, Joshua, that you never knew any one come to preach on the Green before; why should you think they'll coes like Hayslope, where there's only a handful of labourers, too tired to listen to theo and preach on the Binton Hills Will Maskery is no preacher himself, I think"