'And there's hard times before 'ee, my tender,' she saith--I
mind the words well--'but not yet. Good luck will be with 'ee first
along. There's a man loves 'ee, and a man he is; make the most of mun.
You shall cross the sea and come back with gold, but don't 'ee forget
my little house, and if I bean't there, dig under the table, and think
kindly of the old Betsy.'
"So she went back and I walked into the town alone, feeling terrible
fluttered; but I hadn't a-gone very far before I meets with a man in a
red coat and his hair a-powdered, a-walking along by hisself, for it
was evening. I looked at mun and hardly knowed mun at first; but Jan
it was, and beautiful he looked in his ridgmentals sure enough. The
old Betsy had a-promised me good luck first along, and yet I was most
afraid to speak to mun, though nobody was by. And when he saw me he
turned so white as death, and saith quite hoarse like, 'Lucy, what do
you here?' And I couldn't say no more than 'I've a come to find you,
Jan.' And the blood come back into his face, and we didn't want to say
no more, not then. Dear Lord! That was a day!
"We was married so soon as could be, though a sojer's pay is little
enough, as _you_ know, your honour; for the half of what is given is
took away again, so far as I can see. But Jan could always make
something with his shoe-making, while I could wash, and get many a
little job besides from the officers' ladies.
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