CHAPTER VIII 59
" I got up at four o ' clock," she said. " Eh! it was pretty on th ' moor with th ' birds gettin ' up an ' th ' rabbits scamperin ' about an ' th ' sun risin '. I didn ' t walk all th ' way. A man gave me a ride in his cart an ' I can tell you I did enjoy myself."
She was full of stories of the delights of her day out. Her mother had been glad to see her and they had got the baking and washing all out of the way. She had even made each of the children a dough-cake with a bit of brown sugar in it.
" I had ' em all pipin ' hot when they came in from playin ' on th ' moor. An ' th ' cottage all smelt o ' nice, clean hot bakin ' an ' there was a good fire, an ' they just shouted for joy. Our Dickon he said our cottage was good enough for a king to live in."
In the evening they had all sat round the fire, and Martha and her mother had sewed patches on torn clothes and mended stockings and Martha had told them about the little girl who had come from India and who had been waited on all her life by what Martha called " blacks " until she didn ' t know how to put on her own stockings.
" Eh! they did like to hear about you," said Martha. " They wanted to know all about th ' blacks an ' about th ' ship you came in. I couldn ' t tell ' em enough."
Mary reflected a little.
" I ' ll tell you a great deal more before your next day out," she said, " so that you will have more to talk about. I dare say they would like to hear about riding on elephants and camels, and about the officers going to hunt tigers."
" My word!" cried delighted Martha. " It would set ' em clean off their heads. Would tha ' really do that, Miss? It would be same as a wild beast show like we heard they had in York once."