Go! Of course they would go; all of them. Where else could the auspicious day be better spent than in the very house he first saw the light, and among the friends of his infancy. Go! yes though the snow lay three feet deep on moor and fell, and the wintry wind howled round Pots and Pans and whirled the stinging atoms in a very blast hurricane and tornado of blinding blizzard.
"Goa!" exclaimed Hannah, "aw'st goa if aw've to crawl o' mi han's an' knees. Yo' mun write a letter back, Tom, an' say we'st be theer at eleven i' th' forenooin if it's convenient to Mrs. Schofield, an' aw'll gi' a hand wi' th' bastin' an' sarvin' up, so's 'oo can cooil dahn afore 'oo sits dahn to th' table. Aw reckon aw'st want no cooilin' dahn long afore we're ovver th' top."
And then Hannah and Lucy fell to at such a preparation, adjusting, re-adjusting, snipping, snipeing, cutting, hemming, tuckering of shawls and dresses, to such a trimming of hat and bonnet, and such a littering of the house with female finery, that if a wedding or a coronation had been afoot, matters could not have been worse.
"Aw'st nivver howd aat till Sunday, Tom," Ben confided to him. "Aw haven't set tooith into a turkey sin' aw can't remember when an' ivvry time aw think on it mi maath watters soa aw can hardly speik. Do'st think there'll be sossidge wi' it? Tha mieet ha' just nudged her abaat th' sossidge when yo' wrote if yo'd gi'en it a thowt, but aw'm feart it's too lat' nah. An' gooise an' apple sauce, an stuffin', an' plum puddin' wi' brandy sauce--eh, lad, it's a pity tha cannot come o' age onst a week. But aw munnot show greedy. Aw onst knew a felly at a club supper 'at e't a whull leg o' mutton to his own cheek, wi' capers and onion sauce an' breead, an' supped two gallon o' ale. They'd to gie him kester oil for aboon a week at after afore he fair gate shut on it. Nah! aw ca' that a fair abuse o'th' kindly fruits o'th' earth. Nah! tha'll ha' studied ettiket nah tha's ta'en to talkin' townified. How mony helpin's dun yo reely think aw mieet ha' wi' out bein thowt greedy? Aw'm nooan a glutton, like that chap at Gowcar 'at went to a club dinner--Bill o' Natt's, aw think they ca'ed him--an' when he gate whom he rolled o'th' floor, an' all he could say wer' 'Howd, belly, howd, for if tha brusts awm done.' And Ben looked anxiously at Tom for a reply. But Tom only smiled, for he knew that Ben was merely talking to let off steam. So the excited little man went on: