"In the chimneys of the disused rooms, swallows had built their nests for many a long year, and from earliest spring t…"

"It was John Willet's ordinary boast in his more placid moods that if he was slow he was sure; which assertion could i…"

"Finding that his look was not returned, or indeed observed by the person to whom it was addressed, John gradually con…"

"What have I done?" reasoned poor Joe. "Silence sir!" returned his father, "what do you mean by talking, when you see …"

"And you'd find your father rather a tough customer in argeyment, Joe, if anybody was to try and tackle him."

"For the matter o' that, Phil, argeyment is a gift of Natur. If Natur has gifted a man with powers of argeyment, a man…"

"Miss Haredale is Mr. Geoffrey Haredale's niece." "Is her father alive?" said the man carelessly. "No," rejoined the l…"

"That," returned the landlord, a little brought down from his dignity by the stranger's surliness, "is a Maypole story…"

"The man glanced at the parish-clerk, whose air of consciousness and importance plainly betokened him to be the person…"

"Whether these, and many other stories of the like nature, were true or untrue, the Maypole was really an old house, a…"