Page:Under the greenwood tree (1872 Volume 1).pdf/105

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THE TRANTER'S PARTY.
91

and general interest as playthings than any other article in the house, is a question for nursing mothers to decide. However, the humour seemed to lie in the result being, as has been seen, that any given player with these articles was in the long-run daubed with soot. The last that was seen of Charley by daylight after this piece of ingenuity was when in the act of vanishing from his father's presence round the corner of the house,―looking back over his shoulder with an expression of great sin on his face, like Cain as the Outcast in Bible pictures.


The guests had all assembled, and the tranter's party had reached that degree of development which accords with ten o'clock p.m. in rural assemblies. At that hour the sound of a fiddle in process of tuning was heard from the inner pantry.

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