At this point the squire was laughing so noisily that Sophia had to
stop; and his hearty _ha, ha, ha_! was so contagious, that Harry and
Julius and Charlotte, and even Mrs. Sandal, echoed it in a variety of
merry peals. Sophia was calmer. She sat by the lamp, pleasantly
conscious of the amusement she was giving; and, considering that she had
already laughed the circumstance out in her room, quite as well
entertained as any of the party. In a few minutes the squire recovered
himself. "Let us have the rest now, Sophia. I'd have given a gold
guinea to have heard Joe's 'burst.'"
"Show my face?" said Joe; "and what should I show, then? If it
comes to showing faces, I've a better face to show than ever
belonged to one of your breed, if the rest of them are aught like
the sample they have sent us. But if you must know," said Joe, "I
come of a stock that never would be frightened to show their face
to a king, let alone an old noodles that calls himself a
jolly-jist. And I defy the face of clay," said Joe, "to show that
any of us ever did aught he need to be ashamed of, wherever we show
our faces. Dare to show my face, eh?" said Joe again, "My song! but
this is a bonnie welcome to give a fellow that has come so far to
see you such a hot morning." Joe said a deal more of the same make;
and all the time he was saying it, the old man laid himself back in
his great chair, and kept twiddling his thumbs, and glancing up at
Joe with a half-smirk on his face, as if he had got something very
funny before him.
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