Through the Fray: A Tale of the Luddite RiotsHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
General
Through the Fray: A Tale of the Luddite Riots
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Luddites -- Juvenile fiction
“It war a longer tramp nor we had looked vor, and though we sometoimes
got a lift i' a cart we was all pretty footsore when we got to the end
of our journey. The village as we was bound for stood oop on t' top of a
flattish hill, one side of which seemed to ha' been cut away by a knife,
and when you got to the edge there you were a-standing at the end o' the
world. Oi know when we got thar and stood and looked out from the top o'
that wall o' rock thar warn't a word among us.
“We was a noisy lot, and oi didn't think as nothing would ha' silenced
a cropper; but thar we stood a-looking over at the end of the world, oi
should say for five minutes, wi'out a word being spoke. Oi can see it
now. There warn't a breath of wind nor a cloud i' the sky. It seemed to
oi as if the sky went away as far as we could see, and then seemed to
be doubled down in a line and to coom roight back agin to our feet. It
joost took away our breath, and seemed somehow to bring a lump into the
throat. Oi talked it over wi' the others afterward and we'd all felt
just the same.
“It beat us altogether, and you never see a lot of croppers so quiet and
orderly as we war as we went up to t' village. Most o' t' men war away,
as we arterward learned, fishing, and t' women didn't know what to make
o' us, but gathered at their doors and watched us as if we had been
a party o' robbers coom down to burn the place and carry 'em away.
However, when we found Sally White--that war the name of the woman as
had married from Varley--she went round the village and told 'em as we
was a party of her friends who had joost walked across Yorkshire to ha'
a lock at the sea. Another young chap, Jack Purcell war his name, as was
Sally's brother, and oi, being his mate, we stopt at Sally's house. The
other two got a lodging close handy.
“Vor the vurst day or two vokes war shy of us, but arter that they began
to see as we meant no harm. Of course they looked on us as foreigners,
just as we croppers do here on anyone as cooms to Varley. Then Sally's
husband coom back from sea and spoke up vor us, and that made things
better, and as we war free wi' our money the fishermen took to us more
koindly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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