One day, walking alone in the thick wood that skirts the lake near his farm, he was discussing this problem with himself; and every now and then he repeated his question, “Shall I throw it up, and give him the lease back if he likes?” On a sudden he heard a voice near him say: 

“Hold it, you fool!—­hold hard, you fool!—­hold it, you fool!”

The situation being lonely, he was utterly puzzled to account for the interruption, until on a sudden a huge parrot, green, crimson, and yellow, plunged from among the boughs over his head to the ground, and partly flying, and partly hopping and tumbling along, got lamely, but swiftly, out of sight among the thick underwood; and he could neither start it nor hear it any more.  The interruption reminded him of that which befel Robinson Crusoe.  It was more singular, however; for he owned no such bird; and its strangeness impressed the omen all the more.

He related it when he got home to his wife; and as people when living a solitary life, and also suffering, are prone to superstition, she did not laugh at the adventure, as in a healthier state of spirits, I suppose, she would.

They continued, however, to discuss the question together; and all the more industriously as a farm of the same kind, only some fifteen miles away, was now offered to all bidders, under another landlord.  Gertrude, who felt Sir Bale’s unkindness all the more that she was a distant cousin of his, as it had proved on comparing notes, was very strong in favour of the change, and had been urging it with true feminine ingenuity and persistence upon her husband.  A very singular dream rather damped her ardour, however, and it appeared thus: 

She had gone to her bed full of this subject; and she thought, although she could not remember having done so, had fallen asleep.  She was still thinking, as she had been all the day, about leaving the farm.  It seemed to her that she was quite awake, and a candle burning all the time in the room, awaiting the return of her husband, who was away at the fair near Haworth; she saw the interior of the room distinctly.  It was a sultry night, and a little bit of the window was raised.  A very slight sound in that direction attracted her attention; and to her surprise she saw a jay hop upon the window-sill, and into the room.

Up sat Gertrude, surprised and a little startled at the visit of so large a bird, without presence of mind for the moment even to frighten it away, and staring at it, as they say, with all her eyes.  A sofa stood at the foot of the bed; and under this the bird swiftly hopped.  She extended her hand now to take the bell-rope at the left side of the bed, and in doing so displaced the curtains, which were open only at the foot.  She was amazed there to see a lady dressed entirely in black, and with the old-fashioned hood over her head.  She was young and pretty, and looked kindly at her, but with now and then a slight contraction of lips and eyebrows that indicates pain.  This little twitching was momentary, and recurred, it seemed, about once or twice in a minute.