"You never took 'em last time you went to the seaside. You'm not going to be away more than two weeks."
"Miss Sophy might fancy to be away a bit longer. I do like to have my little bits o' things round me, wherever I be."
"What's the name of the place you'm going to?"
"Miss Nellie will tell ye. 'Tis worry enough vor me to get ready without bothering where we'm going," replied the harassed Kezia.
"'Tis something like that, I fancy," admitted Kezia, beginning to break down under cross-examination.
"That's where Miss Sophy come from. It ain't seaside."
George had arrived and, hearing these voices, he tramped upstairs to save the situation.
"They are going to Drivelmouth," he said.
"I fancied Miss Nellie said Drivelford," remarked the futile Kezia.
"I know she did, and that's where Miss Sophy come from. Why does she want to go back there again?" Bessie inquired warmly.
"You ought to know by this time it's no use attending to what Miss Yard says. Drivelford is quite a different place from Drivelmouth, which happens to be on the sea just where that beautiful river, the Drivel, runs into it. There's a splendid sandy beach--and it's quite a new place they've just discovered," explained George.
"Seems funny, if 'twas there, they never found it avore," said the suspicious Bessie.
"It has just become popular. It was a little fishing village, and now they are making roads and building houses because doctors have discovered there's something in the air," George continued.
"That's what Miss Nellie told me. There's an amazing big cemetery, and 'tis a wonderful healthy place," said Kezia.
"You see, doctors recommend the place so highly that old people go there and die. That accounts for the cemetery, which is not really a local affair, for Drivelmouth is the healthiest place in England," said George.
"Miss Nellie ses there be a thousand volks, and seven be took, and one gets paralytics," commented Kezia.
"Drivelmouth is a great place for general paralysis. The paralytics are wheeled up and down the front all day. People go there just to see them," said George recklessly.
"Surely you are not going to take all those things!" George exclaimed, indicating a teaset, dinner service, and a quantity of art pottery.