After a pause she said, "I dunnut understand that: you've like no house, nor no brass, I guess?"

     "The want of house or brass (by which I suppose you mean money) does not make a beggar in your sense of the word."

     "Are you book-learned?" she inquired presently.

     "Yes, very."

     "But you've never been to a boarding-school?"

     "I was at a boarding-school eight years."

     She opened her eyes wide. "Whatever cannot ye keep yourself for, then?"

     "I have kept myself; and, I trust, shall keep myself again. What are you going to do with these gooseberries?" I inquired, as she brought out a basket of the fruit.

     "Mak' 'em into pies."

     "Give them to me and I'll pick them."

     "Nay; I dunnut want ye to do nought."

     "But I must do something. Let me have them."