More Tales of the RidingsMoorman, F. W. (Frederic William)
General
More Tales of the Ridings
Moorman, F. W. (Frederic William)
Yorkshire (England) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"An' all t' while shoo kept beatin' t' time to t' song o' t' birds wi'
her wand. Soomtimes shoo pointed to t' curlews aboon t' moor; then,
sudden-like, shoo lowered t' wand, while it were pointin' into t' hazel
shaws an' rowan bushes by t' beck-side; and afore I knew what were
happening t' blackbirds wakkened up an' started whistlin' like mad. I
niver heerd sich a shoutin' afore. It were fair deafenin', just as if
there were a blackbird in ivery bush alang t' beck. They kept at it for
happen fower or five minutes, an' then t' lass made a fresh motion wi'
t' wand. What's coomin' next, I wondered, an' afore I'd done wonderin',
sure enough, t' robins gat agate an' tried to shout down t' blackbirds
an' all. You see I'd niver noticed afore that when t' birds start
singin' i' t' morn they keep to a reg'lar order. It's just like a
procession i' t' church. First cooms t' choir lads i' their supplices,
an' happen a peppermint ball i' their mouths; then t' choir men, tenors
and basses; then t' curate, keekin' alang t' pews to see if squire's
lasses are lookin' at him, an' at lang length cooms t' vicar hissen.
Well, it's just t' same wi' t' birds. Skylarks wakkens up first, then
curlews, then blackbirds, robins, throstles. You'll niver hear a
throstle i' front o' a robin, nor a robin i' front o' a blackbird. They
mind what's menseful same as fowks do. At efter, mebbe cuckoo will begin
to shout, an' close behind him will coom t' spinks an' pipits an' lile
tits. Eh, deary me! but I've clean forgotten most pairt o' what I've
larnt misel about t' birds. They do iverything as reg'lar as if 'twere
clockwork.
"I wonder if you childer can tell me what is t' bird that ligs abed
langest?"
There was silence for a moment or two, and then Kester Laycock suggested
rooks.
"Nay," answered Grannie, "rooks are not what I sud call early risers,
but they're not t' last birds up, not by a lang way. T' last bird to
wakken up an' t' first bird to gan to bed is t' house-sparrow. An idle
taistrill is t' sparrow, wi' nowther sense nor mense in his head. But
theer, barns, I'm gettin' off t' track o' my story o' Janet an' t' way
shoo wakkened up t' birds wi' her wand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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