“They won’t know nothing about it tomorrow morning,” said Augustus, as a man of experience, slightly unsteady on his own legs. “They’ll forget all about it.”
“I thenks it be a-most time to go whoam,” said Pistol-legs, rising with some difficulty. “Here, Dan’l!” to one of his numerous descendants. “Let I hould on by thee.”
It was abundantly evident that Pistol-legs was right; it was time to go home. Shortly afterwards the Squire returned again, and announced that the feast was over; when the assembly separated peacefully, after the wont of country folk, though for half an hour or more there came distant “Hurrays” and cheering as the groups went down the road.
About two o’clock in the morning, Jabez the shepherd, with his dog Job at his feet, was found astride of a stile in the meadows. He had stuck close to the barrel all day, and was roaring, at the top of a voice accustomed to shout across half a mile of down, the veracious ballad of “Gaarge Ridler’s Oven,” of noted memory:
“When I goes dead, as it med hap,
Why, bury me under the good ale-tap!
Wi’ voulded arms thur let me lie,
Cheek by jowl my dog and I!”
Endnotes
Colophon
Greene Ferne Farm
was published in 1880 by
Richard Jefferies.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Brian Evans,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2011 by
Nick Hodson
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
The Fishing Party,
a painting completed in 1915 by
Julian Alden Weir.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
April 30, 2023, 6:35 a.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/richard-jefferies/greene-ferne-farm.
The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.
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