"And wheer's our Jim? I'll be bun he's ca'ed Gate. I should ha' thought
'at after being at Pole Moor an' listenin' to two guid sarmons he could
ha' come streight whom, gooid Sunday neet as it is, an' all. But theer,
some women has th' beck on it, an' some hannot, an' there's an' end on
it. Theer's Betty Haley's Matthy can lead th' prayer meetings an' pray
for hauf an hour at a spell, rollin' up th' whites o' his e'en an'
callin' on th' Spirit till he's awmost hoarse, an' now they sen he's to
be put on th' Plan an' be a pudden parson,(a local preacher) an's getten
up Mrs. Wrigley's sleeve, an' oo's nagging at th' owd felly to put him
forrard i' th' mill, an' he'll be an ovver-seer an' happen a peartner,
th' sallow-faced, greasy windbag 'at he is. An' aw'm sure, though aw say
it 'at suddent, aw'm as gooid a woman onny day as Betty Haley ivver
were, as yo'n nowt to do but look at her house to see. Cleanliness is
next to godliness, mi owd mother used to say, an' aw'n getten
cleanliness onnyroad, an' that's more nor Betty Haley can say or ivver
could…." and here Mary was fain to pause for breath.
And from this outpouring I knew that Mary had been to the service in the
Warping Room at Wrigley Mill. My employer's good lady, having had high
words with the Vicar's wife about some parish matter--so 'twas said at
all events--had shaken dust of St. Chad's from her very substantial
feet, and had started a Methodist in a room above the counting-house,
which, on week days, was used for warping the yarn. Matthew Haley was
one of the hands, a black-headed bilious looking man, much suspected by
the other workpeople of carrying tales to the counting-house But he'd as
much gab as a Philadelphia lawyer, and having, as he put it, "raised his
Ebenezer" in the upper chamber at Wrigley Mill, was now become a bright
and shining light in the little congregation which consisted almost
exclusively of the mill people. He was Mary's particular aversion,
however, and she, who, had known Matthy's mother from a girl, never
ceased to wonder that a child of Betty's should to all seeming be born
to grace whilst her own lad should openly scoff at Matthy's perfervid
supplications.
"Why, Mary," I said, when I could at length get in a word edgeways, "you
wouldn't swop your Jim for Matthy Haley, would you?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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