"Look'ee, now, Mally," said he to his dame, "it's all
along o' thee that this trouble's coome intull th' house. I'd never let
the boggart in with my own good-will!" So spoke Farmer Griggs, for even
nowadays there are men here and there who will now and then lay their
own bundle of faults on their wives' shoulders.
"I bade thee do naught but shut the door!" answered Dame Griggs.
"Ay; it's easy enough to shut the door after the trouble's come in!"
"Then turn it out again!"
"Turn un out! Odds bodkins, that's woman's wit! Dost'ee not see that
there's no turnin' o' un out? Na, na; there's naught to do but to go out
ourselves!"
Yes; there was nothing else to be done. Go they must, if they would be
rid of the boggart. So one fine bright day in the blessed spring-time,
they packed all of their belongings into a great wain, or cart, and set
off to find a new home.
Oft they trudged, just as you see in the picture, the three little
children seated high up in the wain, and the farmer and the dame
plodding ahead.
[Illustration: THE DEPARTURE.]
[Illustration: Farmer Griggs and the Wise Man.]
Now, as they came to the bottom of Shooter's Hill, whom should they meet
but their good neighbor and gossip, Jerry Jinks. "So, Georgie," said he,
"you're leavin' th' ould house at last?"
"High, Jerry," quoth Georgie. "We were forced tull it, neighbor, for
that black boggart torments us so that there was no rest night or day
for it.
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