Yorkshire Tales. Third Series: Amusing sketches of Yorkshire Life in the Yorkshire DialectHartley, John
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Yorkshire Tales. Third Series: Amusing sketches of Yorkshire Life in the Yorkshire Dialect
Hartley, John
English language -- Dialects -- England -- Yorkshire; Yorkshire (England) -- Fiction
"Well, tha'rt another! If it hadn't been for thee awst ha been i'th
chapel this minnit."
"Tha'rt happen as weel at hooam, for tha'rt nooan in a fit state o' mind
for th' chapel."
"Awm nooan in a fit state o' body nawther aw think. Just luk at theas
clooas!"
"Goa upstairs an change em, an aw'll see what aw can do wi em. Tha'rt
th' biggest fool aw ivver met i' my life."
What came of a Clock Almanac.
Rosa and Louisa Mellit wor dressmakkers--they'd nawther father nor
mother, an nowt to live on but what they could addle wi ther fingers, an
that worn't mich; for tho' they'd had a bit ov a shop for ten year,
asteead o'th' customers gettin mooar, they gate steadily less--nah an
then they'd a dress to mak for a sarvant lass or some o'th naybors'
wives or dowters, but when th' dresses wor made an sent hooam, monny a
time they didn't get paid for em for months an months, an often enuff
they nivver finger'd th' brass at all.
Soa as th' years went on things went from bad to worse, an asteead o'
payin ready money for jock as they bowt, they'd to get it on th' strap,
until ther worn't a place near whear they'd trust em onny mooar. They'd
selled as much o' ther furnitur as they could till they'd nowt else left
at onnybody wod buy; an they'd popt bits o' things, sich as books an
odds an ends, till they'd nowt else left to pop. An nah th' rent day wor
next mornin, an barrin abaat hawf a soverin they hadn't onnythin to pay
it wi.
"If we could nobbut get us own debts paid," sed Louisa one neet, when
th' shutters were up an they wor talkin things ovver, "we could do
nicely--awm sewer Missis Rhodes could pay that three paand shoo owes us
easy enuff if shoo wod."
"Aw ax'd her to-day," sed Rosa, "an shoo sed shoo'd try an let us have
five shillin at Midsummer."
"What's five shillin then, when we've eight paand ten to pay to morn?"
They booath sat ovver a handful o' coils ther wor i'th grate an sed nowt
for a bit, then Rosa sed,
"Ther's yond length o' black silk we've had soa long, that piece Missis
Jackson ordered an then wod'nt tak; we mun sell that, it cost fower
paand, happen we can get three for it. Whear is it?"
Louisa gate up an fotch'd it off a shelf--it wor tied up in a piece o'
paper, an when shoo oppened it aght, it must ha getten damp somehah, for
it wor all i' patches o' white mowd, an fairly ruinated.
Then booath on em burst into tears when they saw it, and sat daan ageean
an sobbed for long enuff.
"Ther's nowt for it but to be turn'd aght o'th haase an goa an work i' a
mill," sed Louisa.
"Eeah! dear-a-me, to think o' us commin to that." An they booath cried
ageean.
"We must have summat at we can sell," Rosa sobbed in a bit, "what's
getten mother's brooach?"
"We sell'd that to pay th' doctor's bill when poor owd Hamer next door
had th' fever soa long." "So we did, awd forgetten."
Ageean nawther on em spake for a bit, an th' wind howl'd raaad th'
haase, an rain beat ageean th' panes, an all on a sudden Rosa jump'd up
an sed--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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