CHAPTER XXVIII 419
" Well, for sure case, I knawn ' t how they can understand t ' one t ' other: and if either o ' ye went there, ye could tell what they said, I guess?"
" We could probably tell something of what they said, but not all-- for we are not as clever as you think us, Hannah. We don ' t speak German, and we cannot read it without a dictionary to help us."
" And what good does it do you?"
" We mean to teach it some time-- or at least the elements, as they say; and then we shall get more money than we do now."
" Varry like: but give ower studying; ye ' ve done enough for to-night." " I think we have: at least I ' m tired. Mary, are you?"
" Mortally: after all, it ' s tough work fagging away at a language with no master but a lexicon."
" It is, especially such a language as this crabbed but glorious Deutsch. I wonder when St. John will come home."
" Surely he will not be long now: it is just ten( looking at a little gold watch she drew from her girdle). It rains fast, Hannah: will you have the goodness to look at the fire in the parlour?"
The woman rose: she opened a door, through which I dimly saw a passage: soon I heard her stir a fire in an inner room; she presently came back.
" Ah, childer!" said she, " it fair troubles me to go into yond ' room now: it looks so lonesome wi ' the chair empty and set back in a corner."
She wiped her eyes with her apron: the two girls, grave before, looked sad now.