“Nay, ‘twere nowt o’ t’ sort.  T’ house wheer I’d bin livin’ were a back-to-back house, facin’ north, so as we niver gat no sun thro’ yeer’s end to yeer’s end.  But t’ new house stood all by itsen, wi’ windeys on all sides, an’ a back door oppenin’ into t’ gardin.  If there were one thing that t’ missus an’ me had set wer hearts on ’twere a back-door.  We’d never lived i’ a house wi’ a back door, an’ t’ missus had to hing all her weshin’ of a Tuesday across t’ street.  Well, I looked round to see if I could clap eyes on t’ lad that had telled me to bury t’ pig, but he were nowheer to be seen.  But just then I heerd a buzzin’ sound, an’ I reckoned there mun be a waps somewheer about.  An’ a waps it were.  He flew round an’ round my heead, allus coomin’ nearer an’ nearer, an’ at lang length he settled hissen reight on t’ top o’ my neb.  An’ wi’ that I gav a jump, an’ by Gow! there was I sittin’ on t’ bench in my ‘lotment.  I’d fallen asleep, an all that I’d seen o’ t’ potate an’ t’ pig an’ t’ house, ay, an’ t’ lad wi’ green eyes, were nobbut a dream.  But t’ waps weren’t a dream, for I’d seen him flee away when I wakkened up.”

“What you’ve told me, Abe, is like a bit of real life,” I said, after a pause.  “Most of our dreams in this world turn into wasps, with stings in their tails.”

“Nay,” replied Abe the optimist; “but ’twere not a proper sort of dream nawther.  I’ve thowt a vast about it off an’ on, an’ I reckon ’twere a dream wi’ a meanin’ tul it.  ‘Twere like Pharaoh’s dream o’ t’ fat an’ lean beasts.  Happen one day I’ll find a Joseph that’ll tell me what it all means!”

Coals of Fire

I

A visitor to Holmton, one of the smaller manufacturing towns of the West Riding, on a certain October morning, about the middle of the nineteenth century, might have witnessed a strange sight.  It was market-day, and a number of farm people were collected in the market-place, where a brisk trade in cattle, sheep, and dairy produce was being transacted.  Suddenly there appeared in their midst a farmer holding the end of a rope, the noose of which was attached, not to a bull, calf or horse, but to the neck of a girl of nineteen.  At this strange sight loud shouts were raised on all sides, and a stampede was made to the spot where the man and the girl were standing.

The town was originally merely a centre for the farmers in the neighbouring villages, but within the last fifty years it had seen the establishment of the cloth trade in its midst, and the population had considerably increased.  Round about the market-place stone-paved streets had branched off in all directions, and two-storied stone houses had been built, in which the rooms on the ground floor served for kitchen and bedroom, while in the long, low room above hand-looms had been erected, and wool was spun and woven into cloth.

The shouts of the farm people in the market-place at once brought the weavers to their windows and doors.  Ever eager for any excitement which should relieve the drab monotony of their lives, they rushed into the streets and elbowed their way to the market-place.