Thomas Hardy

“ Dewy.
“’Tis quite sad to think what wretched shifts poor maids have been put to,” came again from downstairs. “Ye should hear Clerk Wilkins, my brother-law, tell his experiences in marrying couples these last thirty year: sometimes one thing, sometimes another—’tis quite heart-rending—enough to make your hair stand on end.”
“Those things don’t happen very often, I know,” said Fancy, with smouldering uneasiness.
“Well, really ’tis time Dick was here,” said the tranter.
“Don’t keep on at me so, grandfather James and Mr. Dewy, and all you down there!” Fancy broke out, unable to endure any longer. ”

“ You be as nervous as a cat to-day.”
“And then, of course, when ’tis all over,” continued the tranter, “we shall march two and two round the parish.”
“Yes, sure,” said Mr. Penny: “two and two: every man hitched up to his woman, ’a b’lieve.”
“I never can make a show of myself in that way!” said Fancy, looking at Dick to ascertain if he could.
“I’m agreed to anything you and the company like, my dear!” said Mr. Richard Dewy heartily.
“Why, we did when we were married, didn’t we, Ann?” said the tranter; “and so do everybody, my sonnies.” ”

“ Penny: “I wore my best Bath clogs, I remember, and Penny was cross because it made me look so tall.”
“And so did father and mother,” said Miss Mercy Onmey.
“And I mean to, come next Christmas!” said Nat the groomsman vigorously, and looking towards the person of Miss Vashti Sniff.
“Respectable people don’t nowadays,” said Fancy. “Still, since poor mother did, I will.”
“Ay,” resumed the tranter, “’twas on a White Tuesday when I committed it. Mellstock Club walked the same day, and we new-married folk went a-gaying round the parish behind ’em. ”

“ Dick’s coming on like a wild feller; he’ll be here in a minute. The hive o’ bees his mother gie’d en for his new garden swarmed jist as he was starting, and he said, ‘I can’t afford to lose a stock o’ bees; no, that I can’t, though I fain would; and Fancy wouldn’t wish it on any account.’ So he jist stopped to ting to ’em and shake ’em.”
“A genuine wise man,” said Geoffrey. ”

“ Dewy.
“And we ought, by rights, after doing this parish, to go round Higher and Lower Mellstock, and call at Viney’s, and so work our way hither again across He’th,” said Mr. Penny, recovering scent of the matter in hand. “Dairyman Viney is a very respectable man, and so is Farmer Kex, and we ought to show ourselves to them.”
“True,” said the tranter, “we ought to go round Mellstock to do the thing well. We shall form a very striking object walking along in rotation, good-now, neighbours?”
“That we shall: a proper pretty sight for the nation,” said Mrs. Penny. ”

“ Penny, cleaning one of the glasses of his spectacles.
“O, do hear what they are saying downstairs,” whispered Fancy. “Hush, hush!”
She listened.
“They have, haven’t they, Geoffrey?” continued grandfather James, as Geoffrey entered.
“Have what?” said Geoffrey.
“The men have been known not to come.”
“That they have,” said the keeper.
“Ay; I’ve knowed times when the wedding had to be put off through his not appearing, being tired of the woman. ”

“ How is it he’s left you?”
“He drank too much cider, and it got into his head, and they put him in Weatherbury stocks for it. Father was obliged to get somebody else for a day or two, and Enoch hasn’t had anything to do with the woods since.”
“We might ask him to call down to-night. Stocks are nothing for once, considering ’tis our wedding day.” The bridal party was ordered to halt.
“Eno-o-o-o-ch!” cried Dick at the top of his voice. ”

“ Mr. Callcome continued, lowering his voice as if it were not necessary any longer to include those in the room above among his audience, and selecting a remote corner of his best clean handkerchief for wiping his face. “To be sure!”
“Things so heavy, I suppose,” said Geoffrey, as if reading through the chimney-window from the far end of the vista.
“Ay,” said Nat, looking round the room at points from which furniture had been removed. “And so awkward to carry, too. ’Twas ath’art and across Dick’s garden; in and out Dick’s door; up and down Dick’s stairs ”