THE WILD-DUCK SHOOTER.
that circumstance with great pride, adding, that her child being as 'clean as wax, was quite fit to be kissed by anybody!'
'Missis,' said her husband, as they stood together in the doorway, looking after their guest, 'who dost think that be?'
'I don't know,' answered the missis.
'Then I'll just tell thee, that be young Lord W———; so thou mayst be a proud woman; thou sits and talks with lords, and asks them in to supper—ha, ha!' So saying, her master shouldered his spade and went his way, leaving her clinking the three half-crowns in her hand, and considering what she should do with them. Her neighbor from the other cottage presently stepped in, and when she heard the tale and saw the money, her heart was ready to break with envy and jealousy. 'O! to think that good luck should have come to her door, and she should have been so foolish as to turn it away. Seven shillings and sixpence for a morsel of food and a night's shelter; why, it was nearly a week's wages!'
So there, as they both supposed, the matter ended, and the next week the frost was sharper than ever. Sheep were frozen in the fenny fields, and poultry on their perches, but the good woman had walked to the nearest town and bought a blanket. It was a welcome addition to their bed-covering, and it was many a long year since they had been so comfortable.
But it chanced, one day at noon, that, looking out at her casement, she spied three young gentlemen skating along the ice towards her cottage. They sprang on to the bank, took off their skates, and made
