They reckoned the signs sinnified trouble for the Marsh . Or that the sea ` ud rear up against Dymchurch Wall an ' they 'd be drownded like Old Winchelsea ; or that the Plague was comin ' . So they looked for the meanin ' in the sea or in the clouds -- far an ' high up . They never thought to look near an ' knee-high , where they could see naught . ` Now there was a poor widow at Dymchurch under the Wall , which , lacking man or property , she had the more time for feeling ; and she come to feel there was a Trouble outside her doorstep bigger an ' heavier than aught she 'd ever carried over it . She had two sons -- one born blind , an ' t ` other struck dumb through fallin ' off the Wall when he was liddle . They was men grown , but not wage-earnin ' , an ' she worked for 'em , keepin ' bees and answerin ' Questions . ' ` What sort of questions ? ' said Dan . ` Like where lost things might be found , an ' what to put about a crooked baby 's neck , an ' how to join parted sweethearts . She felt the Trouble on the Marsh same as eels feel thunder . She was a wise woman . ' ` My woman was won ` erful weather-tender , too , ' said Hobden . ` I 've seen her brish sparks like off an anvil out of her hair in thunderstorms . But she never laid out to answer Questions . ' ` This woman was a Seeker , like , an ' Seekers they sometimes find . One night , while she lay abed , hot an ' achin ' , there come a Dream an ' tapped at her window , an ' `` Widow Whitgift , '' it said , `` Widow Whitgift ! '' ` First , by the wings an ' the whistlin ' , she thought it was peewits , but last she arose an ' dressed herself , an ' opened her door to the Marsh , an ' she felt the Trouble an ' the Groanin ' all about her , strong as fever an ' ague , an ' she calls : `` What is it ? Oh , what is it ? '' ` Then 't was all like the frogs in the diks peepin ' ; then 't was all like the reeds in the diks clip-clappin ' ; an ' then the great Tide-wave rummelled along the Wall , an ' she could n't hear proper .
` Three times she called , an ' three times the XXXXX did her down .
Groanin Hobden Plague Tide-wave Whitgift Winchelsea answerin fallin meanin weather-tender