Under the Greenwood Tree | Page 8

new. 'Tis a wine-hogshead; the best port-wine in the commonwealth
have been in that there cask; and you shall have en for ten shillens,
Reub,'--'a said, says he--'he's worth twenty, ay, five-and-twenty, if he's
worth one; and an iron hoop or two put round en among the wood ones
will make en worth thirty shillens of any man's money, if--'"

"I think I should have used the eyes that Providence gave me to use
afore I paid any ten shillens for a jimcrack wine-barrel; a saint is sinner
enough not to be cheated. But 'tis like all your family was, so easy to be
deceived."
"That's as true as gospel of this member," said Reuben.
Mrs. Dewy began a smile at the answer, then altering her lips and
refolding them so that it was not a smile, commenced smoothing little
Bessy's hair; the tranter having meanwhile suddenly become oblivious
to conversation, occupying himself in a deliberate cutting and
arrangement of some more brown paper for the broaching operation.
"Ah, who can believe sellers!" said old Michael Mail in a carefully-
cautious voice, by way of tiding-over this critical point of affairs.
"No one at all," said Joseph Bowman, in the tone of a man fully
agreeing with everybody.
"Ay," said Mail, in the tone of a man who did not agree with everybody
as a rule, though he did now; "I knowed a' auctioneering feller once--a
very friendly feller 'a was too. And so one hot day as I was walking
down the front street o' Casterbridge, jist below the King's Arms, I
passed a' open winder and see him inside, stuck upon his perch,
a-selling off. I jist nodded to en in a friendly way as I passed, and went
my way, and thought no more about it. Well, next day, as I was oilen
my boots by fuel-house door, if a letter didn't come wi' a bill charging
me with a feather--bed, bolster, and pillers, that I had bid for at Mr.
Taylor's sale. The shim-faced martel had knocked 'em down to me
because I nodded to en in my friendly way; and I had to pay for 'em too.
Now, I hold that that was coming it very close, Reuben?"
"'Twas close, there's no denying," said the general voice.
"Too close, 'twas," said Reuben, in the rear of the rest. "And as to Sam
Lawson--poor heart! now he's dead and gone too!--I'll warrant, that if
so be I've spent one hour in making hoops for that barrel, I've spent
fifty, first and last. That's one of my hoops'-- touching it with his

elbow--'that's one of mine, and that, and that, and all these."
"Ah, Sam was a man," said Mr. Penny, contemplatively.
"Sam was!" said Bowman.
"Especially for a drap o' drink," said the tranter.
"Good, but not religious--good," suggested Mr. Penny.
The tranter nodded. Having at last made the tap and hole quite ready,
"Now then, Suze, bring a mug," he said. "Here's luck to us, my
sonnies!"
The tap went in, and the cider immediately squirted out in a horizontal
shower over Reuben's hands, knees, and leggings, and into the eyes and
neck of Charley, who, having temporarily put off his grief under
pressure of more interesting proceedings, was squatting down and
blinking near his father.
"There 'tis again!" said Mrs. Dewy.
"Devil take the hole, the cask, and Sam Lawson too, that good cider
should be wasted like this!" exclaimed the tranter. "Your thumb! Lend
me your thumb, Michael! Ram it in here, Michael! I must get a bigger
tap, my sonnies."
"Idd it cold inthide te hole?" inquired Charley of Michael, as he
continued in a stooping posture with his thumb in the cork-hole.
"What wonderful odds and ends that chiel has in his head to be sure!"
Mrs. Dewy admiringly exclaimed from the distance. "I lay a wager that
he thinks more about how 'tis inside that barrel than in all the other
parts of the world put together."
All persons present put on a speaking countenance of admiration for the
cleverness alluded to, in the midst of which Reuben returned. The
operation was then satisfactorily performed; when Michael arose and
stretched his head to the extremest fraction of height that his body

would allow of, to re-straighten his back and shoulders-- thrusting out
his arms and twisting his features to a mass of wrinkles to emphasize
the relief aquired. A quart or two of the beverage was then brought to
table, at which all the new arrivals reseated themselves with
wide-spread knees, their eyes meditatively seeking out any speck or
knot in the board upon which the gaze might precipitate itself.
"Whatever is father a-biding out in fuel-house so long for?" said the
tranter. "Never such a man as father for two things--cleaving up