"Why, Anna!" he exclaimed. "Well, well--you ha' become so--so--you
look so uncommon--what I mean is--"
"Beautiful!" said the Tinker. "Be-autiful's the word, Jess!"
"Aye, aye, shipmate, so it is, comrade!"
"And the next word is strike camp, Jessamy, up stick an' away, Jess--"
"We're going to the old place, Jessamy!" nodded Diana.
"Where you instructed me in the 'noble art,' Jessamy!" said I.
"So it's all together and with a will, Jess!" added the Tinker.
"Aye, aye--and heartily!" laughed Jessamy.
I will pass over the labour of the ensuing hours wherein we all
wrought cheerfully; but evening found us camped within that
oft-remembered wood beside the stream whose murmurous waters seemed to
find a voice to welcome us.
CHAPTER VI
WHICH, AS THE PATIENT READER SEES, IS THE LAST
The Tinker stood resplendent in brass-buttoned coat of bottle green
which, if a little threadbare at the seams, made up for this by the
astonishing size and sheen of its buttons.
At this precise moment (I remember) he was engaged in brushing it
vigorously, pausing between whiles to pick carefully at certain
refractory blemishes, to give an extra polish to some particular
button, or consult the never-failing watch, for to-day Diana and I
were to be married.
"By Goles, Peregrine, it's past twelve o'clock already!" he
ejaculated. "They ought to be here soon and--"
He checked suddenly and stood hushed and mute, for Jessamy had
appeared,--a glorified Jessamy, resplendent from top to toe; his boots
shone superbly, his coat sat on him with scarce a wrinkle, but his
chief glory was his shirt, prodigiously beruffled at wrists and bosom.
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