Clergy -- Fiction; English fiction; Lincolnshire (England) -- Fiction
"Hear, hear!" and a great deal of mug rattling on the table.
"And made Pall Mall--Pall Mall--Pall Mall--"
"Hear, hear!"
"Go on," whispered Barker, "that's it--echo to their warlike tread."
"Echo to the warlike tread o' their heavy boots," cried Sim, banging his
hand down upon the table.
"Hear, hear!"
"Till the bloated holygarchs a sitting in theer bloated palluses
abloating theer sens."
"Brayvo, lad," shouted Big Harry; "that's faine."
"Set down and shouthered wi' fear," continued Sim; "as they--as they--do
be a bit sharper," he whispered to Barker.
"Saw the nation rising in its might," whispered the prompter.
"Saw the nation rising up wi' all its might and main," cried Sim. Then
to Barker, "Shall I put it into 'em now?"
"Yes, yes; they're ripe enough," was the answer.
"And now, mates," continued Sim, "it's time as we rose up in our might,
and showed him as is starving our wives and bairns what we can do when
we're trampled down, and that like the wums as is tread on, we can turn
and sting the heel o' the oppressors."
"Good, good! Go on," said the deputation, rubbing its hands.
"Are we to see a maulkin like Dickey Glaire, because he is an employer,
always getting fat on the sweat of a pore man's brow?"
"Go on! go on! Capital!" whispered Barker. "Fine himage."
"What's a himage?" said Sim, stopped in his flow.
"All right, go on, man," whispered Barker; "I only said fine himage."
"As my friend and brother the deppitation says," continued Sim, "Dicky
Glaire's a fine image to sit on all us like an old man o' the
mountains."
"No, no, I didn't," whispered Barker.
"You did," whispered Sim. "I heerd you."
"Go on," whispered back Barker; "the time has come--go on; beautiful."
"And the time has come to go on beautiful," said Sim, waving his arms.
"No, no," whispered Barker.
"I wish yow'd howd thee tongue altogether," whispered Sim. "You do nowt
but put me out."
"Go on, brayvo!" cried the men.
"Now, don't you interrupt me no more," whispered Sim, in an aggrieved
tone; "that aint a bit like as you writ it down, and I shall say it my
own way-er. And, mates," he continued aloud, "the time has come when
we've got to tak' our heads from under the despot's heels, when we've
got to show 'em 'ow they depends upon the sons of tyle; and teach 'em as
all men's ekal, made o' the same flesh and blood, eddication or no
eddication; and if Dickey Glaire won't gi'e uz a fair day's wuck for a
fair day's pay."
"No, no, other way on," whispered the deputation.
"You let me alone; I'm getting on better wi'out you," whispered Sim.
Then aloud, "They'll hev' to change places wi' us, and see how they like
it then. Now, who's that?" cried Sim, as a loud knocking was heard. "A
man can't get a word in edgeways."
"Who knocks wi'out?" cried the first sentry.
"Open the door," said a loud voice.
"Who knocks wi'out?" said the sentry again.
"Open the door, fool!" said the rough voice again.
"Give the pass-word," said the sentry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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