Fathers and daughters -- Fiction; Social classes -- England -- Fiction
The other vehicle was, however, the climax of the Joy of Living in
Tallack Street, only it demanded a 'apenny a time, and you had to
save up. But if you could afford it, it was rapture. How describe it?
Well, it was drawed by a donkey, and went round and round and round.
You yourself, and your friends, sat on truncated chairs at the end of
radial spokes rotating horizontally on a hub, which played melancholy
tunes, and you could tell what they were by looking, because there
was the ticket of it, every time a new tune come. But the execution
supplied no clue, or very little, to its identity.
Tallack Street, as you will have inferred, was a cul-de-sac, and
therefore very popular as a playground with the children of the
neighbourhood. It ended in a dead wall, formerly enclosing an extinct
factory, which had survived the coming of the railway, by which it
had been acquired, and for some reason spared; about which factory,
or, rather, its remains, an understanding had been current for about
a generation that it could be took on lease from the Company and
adapted as workshops. The board was almost illegible, except one word
"inquire," of no value apart from its sequel, which anyone who could
read would have told you at once was a name and address; but as to what
name and what address, it would have taken a scollard to tell that.
* * * * *
There came occasionally to Tallack Street a lady, who appeared to
Lizarann to make her way into her Aunt Steptoe's home on insufficient
pretexts. She certainly was not the sort of lady to get her shoes
mended by a working cobbler in a suburban slum, and Lizarann made no
pretence of understanding her. She saw very little of any of her aunt's
visitors, because she was always sent, or bundled, out the moment they
appeared, and only allowed in the house again after their departure.
She was interested and pleased, therefore, when this lady, who was
dressed quite beautiful, developed as a friend of Teacher, the familiar
spirit of the Dale Road Schools, where this little girl was learning
to sew quite beautiful. She was still more interested when she became
aware that the conversation between these two ladies related to her own
family. Teacher and the lady talked out quite loud close to her--as if
she didn't matter, bless you!
"All the streets are not as bad as Tallack Street," said the lady. "And
all the houses in Tallack Street are not so bad as that house at the
end. People named Townroe, I think--awful people!"
"Do you mean Steptoe?"
"Oh yes--Steptoe. I've tried to talk to the woman, and it's perfectly
useless. You can't do anything when the man's in the way. And as for
him--well, you know, Adeline, when these people don't attend either
church or chapel, it's simply hopeless. There's nothing to begin upon."
"The man drinks. Of course!"
"Of course! He seemed sober, though, the only time I saw him, but very
sulky. Oh dear!--he _was_ trying."
"What did he say?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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