He chose the former
alternative, and opened his eyes.
'If he don't come in five minutes,' said John, 'I shall have supper
without him.'
The antecedent of this pronoun had been mentioned for the last time
at eight o'clock. Messrs Parkes and Cobb being used to this style of
conversation, replied without difficulty that to be sure Solomon was
very late, and they wondered what had happened to detain him.
'He an't blown away, I suppose,' said Parkes. 'It's enough to carry a
man of his figure off his legs, and easy too. Do you hear it? It blows
great guns, indeed. There'll be many a crash in the Forest to-night, I
reckon, and many a broken branch upon the ground to-morrow.'
'It won't break anything in the Maypole, I take it, sir,' returned old
John. 'Let it try. I give it leave--what's that?'
'The wind,' cried Parkes. 'It's howling like a Christian, and has been
all night long.'
'Did you ever, sir,' asked John, after a minute's contemplation, 'hear
the wind say "Maypole"?'
'Why, what man ever did?' said Parkes.
'Nor "ahoy," perhaps?' added John.
'No. Nor that neither.'
'Very good, sir,' said Mr Willet, perfectly unmoved; 'then if that
was the wind just now, and you'll wait a little time without speaking,
you'll hear it say both words very plain.
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