Oh fai! oh fai!
Whatever wull they Lunnoners think of Davonsheer, if they zees you
agooin on laike this here? There, dang that Beany Dawe; blest if I
baint a toornin Poüt too. Coomth of larnin to wraite, I reckon." The
farmer’s pockets were crammed with circulars, handbills, and puffs of
every description, which he received from all who offered, and was
saving them all for his wife.
"Clean your boots, my gentleman," cried a little shrill voice; "clean
both your boots for a halfpenny. Never say die, Sir; polish ’em bright
till the cat at home won’t know them. Three-fardings-worth of blacking,
and a penny in skill and labour, and all for the laughable sum of one
half-penny. Pure satisfaction guaranteed, or the whole of the money
returned. Up with your foot, my gentleman!"
The farmer pulled up suddenly, for fear of walking over him, as the boy,
despising Beany Dawe, had dashed in between Jack and Sally, and danced
before Mr. Huxtable. His brushes were whisking about, like bumble-bees
roughly disturbed, and already menaced the drab of the Sunday fustian
gaiters.
"Zober now," cried the farmer, who could not believe that he was
addressed, having never dreamed, in his most ambitious moments (if any
such he had), of ever being called a gentleman, "zober now, wull’e.
Where bee’st gooin to, thou little hosebird; be they your Lunnon-town
manners? Lat alo-un, I zay; lat alo-un now, wull ’e?"--as the boy got
more and more tentative--"Heart alaive, cant e zee, they be my Zunday
gaiters? Oh, if my missus wor here! And ’e bain’t more nor naine year
old! Wull, wull, where ever do ’e goo to schoüll?"
"Hinstitooshun 66. No children or females admitted. Up with your foot,
old bloke! Do the young uns and tootor half-price. Just two minutes to
spare, till the Dook of Cambridge’s turn. Great Exhibition polish, and
all to encourage the fine arts."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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