Authors, English -- 20th century -- Biography; Reynolds, Stephen Sydney, 1881-1919
"'Go to b----ry!' says Dick, swearing worse'n ever, 'cause _he_ was
wanting in his heart to be home again, yu see.
"I burst out crying, then and there, wi' seeing Dick's mother cry, an'
all o'it what we'd been drough. The Board o' Trade officer repeated as
he'd help me an' no doubt find me a ship, but Dick--his mother was
come'd for he.
"'Wer Dick goes, I goes,' says I.
"Then Dick's mother, her says: 'Will 'ee come home then, Tony?'
"'Wer Dick goes, I goes,' I says again. 'Twas fixed in me head, like.
"'Well,' her says, 'if Dick comes home, will yu come too?'
"I told her: 'I've a-signed on aboard the _Brooklands_, an' I'll hae to
tramp it 'cause I an't got no money.'
"'Well, if I pays _your_ fare too?'
"'Wer Dick goes, I'll go!' I says.
"So her got over Dick a bit, an' the Board o' Trade man told us to come
again, saying as he'd do anything for me, but Dick's mother was come'd
for he. An' Mrs Yeo asked us to go wi' her to a restaurant.... That
turned me more'n ort else 'cause us hadn' eaten the stuff to the
lodging house an' us _was_ hungry. An' her telegraphed home to Dick's
father for a trap to meet us to Totnes, for 'twas a Saturday an' there
wern't no trains no nearer home.
"Us went to the station, Dick swearing awful, an' in the end us come'd
to Totnes to find the trap.
"The trap was there at the inn, sure 'nuff, an' the ostler was waiting
up, but the man what come'd wi' the trap was disappeared. We on'y found
'en at two in the morning, sleeping dead drunk in the manger, an' then
he an' the ostler began fighting on account o' the ostler casting out a
slur 'cause Dick's mother didn' gie him no more than a shilling. A
policeman come an' cleared us out o' it!
[Sidenote: _CARRIAGE PEOPLE_]
"Two or dree mile out o' Totnes the horse stops dead an' begins to go
back'ards. Us coaxed 'en, like, an' still he kept on stopping an'
walking back'ards. Dick an' me got out to walk to the halfway inn.
There the landlord wuden' come down for us. But he did when the trap
come'd up--us was carriage people than, yu see. We had drinks round,
an' us give'd flour an' water to the horse to make 'en go. But us hadn'
gone far when he stopped an' began to go back'ards again. Dick, he
started swearing. 'Let's walk on,' I says, to get 'en out o'it; an' so
us did for a mile or so. 'Twas dark, wi' a mizzling rain--an'
quiet--an' the trees like shadows. A proper logie night 'twas. Wude 'ee
believe me when I says I cude smell the flowers I cuden' see? Us was
glad when a tramp caught up wi' us.
"'Have 'ee see'd ort o' a horse an' trap wi' two persons in 'en?' I
askis.
"'Two mile back,' he says.
"'Us lef 'en only a mile back,' Dick says.
"'He've a-gone a mile back'ards then!' says I.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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