Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction; Peddlers -- Fiction; Riots -- England -- Fens, The -- Fiction
'Now listen to me,' said Drownlands. 'This horse of yours will never be
able to get the van along. I will ride home and fetch a team, and we'll
have the whole bag of tricks conveyed to Prickwillow in a jiffy. I'll
bring help, and we'll lift you on to a feather tye.'
'You will not play me false?' asked Zita.
'Not I,' answered Ki, as he picked up the second flail; 'trust me. I
shall be back in half an hour.'
He mounted his horse and rode away. The girl watched him as he departed
with some anxiety; then, as he departed into the darkness, Zita seated
herself on the bank, and endeavoured to raise her father, that his head
might repose on her bosom. He looked at her and put his arm about her
neck.
'You've been a good gal,' said he. 'You've done your dooty to the
wan and the 'oss and me, and I bless you for it. That there tea as
we made out o' sweepins as we bought at London Docks, and out o'
blackthorn leaves as we picked off the hedges and dried on the top of
the wan—'twas a fine notion, that. Go on as I've taught you, Zit, and
you'll make a Cheap Jack o' the right sort. One pun' thirteen and six
for them flails! That's about one pun' twelve profits. What's us sent
into the world for but to make profits? I've done my dooty in it. I've
made profits. I feel a sort o' in'ard glow, just as if I wos a lantern
wi' a candle in me, when I thinks on it. One pun' twelve—I say, Zit,
what's that per cent.? I can't calkerlate it now; it's gone from me.
One pun' twelve is thirty-two. And thirty-two to one and an 'arf'—He
heaved a long sigh. 'I be bad—I can't calkerlate no more.'
Zita leaned over the sick man's face, and with the corner of her gaily
figured and coloured kerchief wiped his brow. His mind was wandering.
From silence and impatience of being spoken to and having to exert
himself to speak, he had come to talk, and talk much, in rambling
strains.
'Father, I've brought you some brandy from the van. Take a drop. It may
revive you.'
She put a flask to his lips. He found a difficulty in swallowing, and
turned his face away. He had raised his head to the flask with an
effort; it sank back on his daughter's bosom.
'Dad, how wet your hair is!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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