For you ought to know that he only rested there,
and gave the old horse a bait. He had to go some
four or five miles farther on; and when he returned
in the evening, he called for Dot, and took another
rest on his way home. This was the order of the day
on all the Pic-Nic occasions, and had been, ever since
their institution.
There were two persons present, beside the bride
and bridegroom elect, who did but indifferent honour
to the toast. One of these was Dot, too flushed and
discomposed to adapt herself to any small occurrence
of the moment; the other, Bertha, who rose up hur-
riedly, before the rest, and left the table.
'Good-bye!' said stout John Peerybingle, pulling
on his dreadnought coat. 'I shall be back at the old
time. Good bye all!'
'Good-bye, John,' returned Caleb.
He seemed to say it by rote, and to wave his hand
in the same unconscious manner; for he stood observ-
ing Bertha with an anxious wondering face, that
never altered its expression.
'Good-bye, young shaver!' said the jolly Carrier,
bending down to kiss the child; which Tilly Slowboy,
now intent upon her knife and fork, had deposited
asleep (and strange to say, without damage) in a
little cot of Bertha's furnishing; 'good-bye! Time
will come, I suppose, when you'll turn out into the
cold, my little friend, and leave your old father to
enjoy his pipe and his rheumatics in the chimney-
corner; eh? Where's Dot?'
'I'm here, John!' she said, starting.
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