"Poor owld mother tuk and put zum on 'em into a pie. But 'em did yeat terrible runk, I wun't deny but 'em wur terrible runk."

"So I should think. Let's see, what's the time? Not half past seven. How's the night, shepherd?" The shepherd gets up and goes to the door.

Johnny, in a low voice to Herbert, "I know all about where we are now, only about a mile and a half from home. It's the great barn we used to call the haunted barn."

"What was it haunted with?"

"Cats; I'll tell you the story presently. I don't want to talk, or Jonas might recognize me."

"Not he. Well, what do you make of the night, shepherd?"

""T is clearin' off, zur. "T will be vine enuff d'rectly." "Did you ever see any ghosts in the barn?"

"Haw! haw! Noa, zur. Ther' beant no bogles up here; thaay keps down below, thaay does."

"Well, we may as well be getting ready for a start." So they got up, put on their coats, shouldered their knapsacks, and, having astonished Jonas's wife by a present of five shillings to buy fuel with, stepped out, accompanied by Jonas.

The last flakes of the snow-storm were falling, and the moon shone out keen and white, and the air felt deliciously keen and fresh after Jonas's little close hole of a kitchen. "How splendid!" said Herbert, as they paused before the cottage door. "Hark! don't I hear bells?"

"Zartin zhure. Thaay be Avenly Christmas bells, zur, a ringin' for Squire Kendrick's Ashen Fagot. Thaay 'll be lightin' he up zmartish, I 'll war'nd."

"We can go straight across to Avenly, I suppose."

"Ees, zur, straight as you plaazes. Zo you be gwine to Avenly?"

"Yes, I hope so."

"Did 'ce ever heer o' th' Squire's zon as runned awaay vrom whoam out in thaay forrin parts, zur?"

"I never met any one who went by that name. So the Squire's son ran away from home?"

"Ees a did, mwoar' nor a year ago."

"How was that?"

"Well, I d' wont kneow th' rights on 't, zur. I've heerd as a wur zo nat'rally grounded wi' pride and obs'tncy a would n't tek a word vrom 's own vather. Then a' spent a zite o' money, I heerd, at college. Hows'mever, won daay, th' Squire spoke zharper n' usual to 'n, and a went aff then and ther. A wa' n't a bad haart neither; that I 'ool zaay var 'n. I've a zeed un about wi' Tummus scoors o' times; Tummus be the Squire's zhepherd, and wur main vond ov 'n. But a'd got a zart o' prodigalish waay wi' un as did n't bode no good."

"Well, shepherd, I hope he 'll come to his senses and get back home soon."

"I wishes a med, zur. For th' Squire hev never rightly held up s' yead sence he bin gone; nor madam neither. And there a'n't a better maester nor missus in th' whole country zide. I kneows I wishes I'd been barn on he's lands."

"Well, good by, shepherd. I hope we may meet again before long."

"I dwon't care how zoon, zur. But shall I gwo 'lang with 'ee a bit, to show 'ee th' waay y?"

"No, thanks, we shall do famously; good night."

So they shook the horny hand of their host, and went off across the glittering snow in the still moonlight towards Avenly dip, with the Christmas chime coming up from the little hamlet, and speaking to open hearts, of the child that was born, and the shepherds that kept their flocks, in a far land, near twenty centuries ago.

CHAPTER IV.

"LET th' adze 'bide, Maester Dick; let th' adze 'bide, I tell 'ee. Dal'd if I dwon't gev thee the stick, ef thee gwoes an spwilin' the tools, aal as I can zaay."

Dick Kendrick, to whom this objurgation was addressed in the outhouse next the stable of Avenly Manor-House, which was used for a carpenter's shop, dropped the forbidden adze for the moment. Moses Ockle, the carpenter, his interlocutor, went on with his work for some time with one eye on the adze, but presently relaxed his vigilance, and Dick had hold of the adze again, and was chipping away at a tough log of timber, "before a body could wink a'mwoast," as his victim described it. The second or third chink of the adze, however, recalled Moses to the state of affairs, and, dropping the saw he was using, he caught up the nearest switch he could lay hands on, and made at Dick, who bolted behind the big bench which stood in the middle of the shop, meaning to parley. This afforded him protection for the moment, but, seeing that Moses was in earnest, and would infallibly reach him over the bench, he broke cover, and made for the open door, upsetting, on his way, the crosstrees at which the pursuer had been working, and just escaping a swingeing blow, which the enraged carpenter, his shins smarting from contact with the over-set cross-trees, aimed at him, and which fell on the door-post.

"Od, drattle th' young carcass," growled Moses, as he gathered up his work and went on with it; "thee bist he very moral o' thy brother. He wur transpworted, or zummat equal to 't, and thou 'lt cum to the gallus, zhure as my neam's Moses."

"Well, Moses," said William Kendrick, entering a few minutes afterwards, "you 're making the Ashen Fagot for to-night, arn't you?"

"Ees, Maester Willum."

“Will you please make a smaller one, too? You'll be glad, I know, to hear that we have had news of my brother. So papa and mamma say the children may have a fagot before the supper begins."

"That I 'ool, Maester Willum. And how many hoops 'll 'ee hev to un?"

"O, four or five, Moses."

"Zaay arf a dozen, zur. But I be mazin' glad to hear about th' young squire. And wher be un, then, Maester Willum, make zo bowld, and wut be un doin' ov?"

"He is in Australia, right on the other side of the world, Moses. And he is very well, and doing capitally. He is a sort of head man to a great sheep farmer there."

"Th' young squire a zhepperdin! Maester William?" "Yes, Moses, and why not? The sheep farmers are the great people. I should like nothing better than to go out myself, and make my own way there. But can't you let me help you? I should so like to help make the Ashen Fagots for to-night."

Moses was nothing loath. Willie was a very different style of boy from Dick, and so the two worked on together, Moses cutting ash-poles for the two fagots, and Willie under his direction preparing the hazel-rods for the hoops.

"Why don't you make the hoops of ash, too, Moses?" "'Cause hazel burns slawer, and zo howlds th' vagot together langer."

By the time it was dusk they had finished binding the two fagots; one a monster, some six feet long, with about a dozen hazel hoops round him, the other a miniature one of half the size. Willie marched off in triumph with the smaller, leaving the carpenter to follow with the other when he had tidied up the place a bit, which he did, muttering to himself: "And zo th' young squire be zhepperdin, be un? Ef a' had 's desarvins, a 'd be kepin' pegs, like he in Scrip

tur, and a fillin' ov's belly wi' th' husks as th' zwine did yet."

Willie and the carpenter deposited their burdens in a huge lofty room at one end of the house, away from the sittingrooms. It was called the kitchen, but seldom used for that purpose, a smaller and more central room having succeeded it. It had now become more a servants' hall, but its special vocation, and one for which it was eminently qualified, was that of receiving the periodical gatherings at harvest homes, Ashen Fagot nights, and such occasions, when the Kendricks made entertainment for their vassals.

The chief feature in the room was the fireplace, which cannot be better described than in the homely words of a rhymer of the country:

"My veather's vires wur mead o' logs

O' cleft 'ood down upon the dogs,

In our girt vire-pleace, zo wide
As you med draw a cart inzide,

An big an little med zet down

On boath zides, an avore, an all rown;

An up in corner thaay did hitch

The zaalt box on the bacon vlitch;

An, when I wur a zettin, I

Could zee aal up into the sky

An watch the zmoke gwo vrom the vire

Aal up an out at un, an higher;

An ther' wur beacon upon rack,

An plates to yet it upon tack;

An rown the walls were yarbs, stowd

In peapern bags, an blathers blowed;

An jest above the clavey boord
Were vather's gun, an zpurs, an zoord;
An ther' were ther' our gertest pride,
The zettle by the vire zide."

This room was now, under the hands of two maids, being prepared for the evening's festivities, while the children ran in and out, helping, as they delighted to think. A bright fire. crackled already on the dogs, which were in due time to receive the Ashen Fagots; all the furniture was moved