Lancashire (England) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Granny, as she was called, bore that name not from relationship,
but from her kindliness and age. It was the pet name given to her
by the colliers to whom she so often ministered in their risks and
exposures at the adjacent pit. Into her life the rain had fallen.
After fifteen years of domestic joy, her only child, a son, fell
before the breath of fever, and in the shadow of that loss she
ever since walked. Then her husband succumbed to the exposure of a
winter's toil, and now for long she had lived alone. But as she
used to say, 'Suppin' sorrow had made her to sup others' sorrow
with them.' Her cup, though deep and full, had not embittered her
heart, but led her to drink with those whose cup was deeper than
her own. The death of little Job had rolled away the stone from
the mouth of the sepulchre of her own dead child; and as she held
the hand of the lately-bereaved mother she dropped many a word of
comfort.
'I'll tell thee what aw've bin thinkin',' said the old woman.
'What han yo' bin thinkin', Gronny?'
'Why, I've bin thinkin' haa good th' Almeety is--He's med angels
o' them as we med lads.'
'I durnd know what yo' mean, Gronny.'
'Why, it's i' this way, lass; my Jimmy and yor little Job wur aar
own, wurnd they?'
'Yi, forsure they wur.'
'We feshioned 'em, as the Psalmist sez, didn't we?'
'Thaa sez truth, Gronny,' wept the younger woman.
'And we feshioned 'em lads an' o'.'
'Yi, and fine uns; leastways, my little Job wur--bless him.'
And the mother turned her tearful eyes towards the settle whereon
lay the corpse.
'Well, cornd yo' see as God hes finished aar wark for us, and what
we made lads, He's made angels on?'
'But aw'd sooner ha' kept mine. Angels are up aboon, thaa knows;
an' heaven's a long way off.'
'Happen noan so far as thaa thinks, lass; and then th' Almeety
will do better by 'em nor we con.'
'Nay, noan so, Gronny. God cornd love Job better nor I loved him.'
'But he willn't ged crushed in a coile seam i' heaven; naa, lass,
will he?'
'Thaa's reet, Gronny, he willn't. But if He mak's us work here,
why does He kill us o'er th' job, as he's killed mi little lad?'
'Thaa mun ax Mr. Penrose that, lass; I'm no scholard.'
'Aw'll tell thee what it is, Gronny. It noan seems reet that thee
and me should be sittin' by th' fire, and little Job yonder cowd
i' th' shadow. Let's pool up th' settle to th' fire; he's one on
us, though he's deead.'
'Let him alone, lass; he's better off nor them as wants fire;
there's no cowd wheer he's goan.'
Rising from her chair, and turning the sheet once more from off
the boy's face, the mother said:
'Where hasto goan, lad? Tell thi mother, willn't taa?' And then,
looking round at the old woman, she said, 'Doesto think he yers
(hears) me, Gronny?'
'Aw welly think he does, lass; but durnd bother him naa. He's
happen restin', poor little lad; or happen he's telling them as is
up aboon all abaat thee--who knows?'
'Aw say, Gronny, Jesus made deead fo'k yer Him when He spok',
didn't He?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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