sich a bird.  An’ when it were upgrown, an’ turned out to be a gander, I ‘adn’t it i’ my ‘eart to change th’ name, seein’ as it had getten to know it so well, an’ arter all, seein’ as it’s th’ head of all th’ fowls i’ my place, it doesn’t seem to coom amiss.  Canon, he wanted me to call it Prince Consort, or else Albert Edward, but it didn’t seem natural like, an’ I’ve allus been used to call my white drake Albert Edward; and Prince Consort, he’s th’ owd rooster.”

“Well,” said Ted, hoisting up the gander again under his arm, and chuckling as he walked forward, “well, that beats all!  I never heerd sich a tale i’ my life.  Coom, Victoria, howd up, owd lad; we’se soon be theer now.  An’ so th’ owd rooster is Prince Consort?  An’ the drake’s th’ Prince o’ Wales?  Ho, ho!  Have ye getten any more royalties yonder?”

“I’ve used up pretty near all th’ royal fam’ly,” replied Margaret, with a recurrence of her former dolorous pride; “it’s the only mark o’ respect as I can show my sovering.  Every time Her Gracious Majesty gets a new grandchild or great-grandchild, Canon, he cooms an’ says, ‘Margaret, have you any more chickens as wants names?’ An’ soomtimes the one christening ’ull do for a whole brood; they royal childer has sich a mony names, ye know.”

Ted sneered and looked immensely superior; the loyalty of this benighted woman filled his Radical mind with as much contempt as amusement.  He was about to utter some scathing remark, when his attention was diverted by their arrival at Margaret’s cottage.

Throwing open the little wicket-gate which divided her premises from the lane, she pressed forward, and unlocked her door.  Ted followed her into the kitchen, while Joe stood without, craning forward his neck to see what was going on in the interior of the cottage, and drawing the back of his hand across his lips when he saw Miss Heptonstall produce a small bottle of whisky.

“He looks a dale livelier now,” remarked Ted, uncloaking the gander and setting it on its legs on Margaret’s immaculate table.  “Whoa, steady theer,” as the bird began to struggle in his grasp, flapping uneasy wings, and making a sickly attempt at a hiss.

Margaret, who had been about to uncork the bottle, paused, surveying Victoria with her head on one side.

“Theer dunnot seem to be mich amiss, do theer?” she remarked; “it seems a’most a pity to be givin’ it sperrits.  It’ll upset it again as like as not.”

“Theer mun ha’ been summat amiss i’ th’ first place, though,” returned Wharton, with a judicial air, “else it wouldn’t ha’ been took bad same as it were.  If I was you, Miss Heptonstall, I’d give it a drop to strengthen its in’ards a bit.”

“Ah,” agreed Joe from the doorway.

Ted fumbled in his pocket and produced a large red cotton handkerchief, which he carefully spread on the table beneath the gander.

“It ’ud be a pity to let this here table get dirty,” he observed, looking admiringly at its spotless surface.  Margaret eyed him with more favour than she had hitherto displayed; then, smiling sourly, began to pour out the contents of her little black bottle.