I must have dropped off into a morning dose, for when I came back again
to consciousness Jim was sat on the side of his couch, a little rickety,
spindle-shanked, rush-bottomed chair in front of him, against the back
of which was propped a small mirror about the size of a sheet of
note-paper, its usefulness and beauty much marred by a crack that ran
diagonally across a blotted surface. The half of a cocoanut shell, which
served Jim as a shaving pot, rested on the floor, and Jim was
alternately stropping a very harsh-scraping razor, lathering his face
and throat, and shaving himself as he wielded the razor in the right
hand and pinched his nose firmly with the left.
"Did ta' ivver hear tell o' th' lad at th' schooil at th' inspector wer'
hearkening to read?" he broke off to ask, when he noticed that I had
opened my eyes.
"What about him?" I asked.
"Well he come to one o' them guisehanged long names i' th' Bible, an'
baulked at it. 'Say summat sharp,' whispers th' schooilmester. 'Razzer,'
says th' lad, 'Razzer'. But it wer' noan this razzer I'll go bail, for
I've stropped it till mi shackle warks, an' I'd as soon tha' took a
curry comb to me for comfort."
"You're making yourself mighty fine to-day, Jim, and it isn't one of
your Sundays for Church," I commented, noticing his knee-breeches, and
that he had already donned polished shoon with buckles of nickel silver
and a striped and starred linen shirt.
"Church? No, thank God. It's noan Church to-day. I'm off to th' Wakes,
and so are ta', mi hearty. Why, man, it's th' Rushbearing, an' aw've
n'er missed th' Rushbearing sin' aw wer' a little 'un, an' aw n'er mean
to. There'll be some ale stirring to-day at th' Church, aw can tell
thee, an' aw'st ha' mi share on 't, tha' may bet thi Sunday booits."
"At the Church?" I queried.
"Aye, th' Church Inn, to be sure. Don't thee act so gaumless. Ger up an'
don thee, lad. Aw do believe there's a collop for breakfas', aw hear it
sizzlin', an' smell it, too, for that matter. So doant tha be so greedy
on th' porridge, leave a corner for th' collop."
And if any assurance were needed that breakfast was well forward it was
supplied by the shrill voice of Mother Haigh calling at the bottom of
the stairs:
"Are yo' idle good-for-nowts goin' to lig i' bed till th' wheel starts
to morn? Th' porridge's bin ready this bit back, an' th' bacon's welly
stuck to th' pan bottom Ger up, do."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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