you.”
“I’ll tell you how it is, Master Tom,” said Bob, beginning to untwist his canvas bag. “You see, I’n been with a barge this two ‘ear; that’s how I’n been gettin’ my livin’ — if it wasn’t when I was tentin’ the furnace, between whiles, New Jersey Devils Pelipaidat at Torry’s mill. But a fortni’t ago I’d a rare bit o’ luck — I allays thought I was a lucky chap, for I niver set a trap but what I catched something; but this wasn’t trap, it was a fire i’ Torry’s mill, an’ I doused it, else it Juventus Jerseys ‘ud set th’ oil alight, an’ the Tottenham Hotspur Kid Jerseys genelman gen me ten suvreigns; he gen me ’em himself last week. An’ he said first, I was a sperrited chap — but I knowed that afore — but then he outs wi’ the ten suvreigns, an’ that war summat new. Here they are, all but one!” Here Bob emptied the canvas bag on the table. “An’ Juventus Kid Jerseys when I’d got ’em, my head was all of a boil like a kettle o’ broth, thinkin’ what sort o’ life I should take to, for there war a many trades I’d thought on; for as for the barge, I’m clean tired out wi’t, for it Parajumpers Linus Sverige pulls the days out till they’re as long as pigs’ chitterlings. An’ I thought first I’d ha’ ferrets an’ dogs, an’ be a rat-catcher; an’ then I thought as I should like a bigger way o’ life, as I didn’t know so well; for I’n seen to Chelsea Kid Jerseys the bottom o’ rat-catching; an’ I thought, an’ thought, till at last I settled I’d be a packman — for they’re knowin’ fellers, the packmen are — an’ I’d carry the lightest things I could i’ my pack; an’ there’d be a use for a feller’s tongue, as is no use neither wi’ rats nor barges. An’ I should go about the country far an’ wide, an’ come round the women wi’ my tongue, an’ get my dinner hot at the public — lors! it ‘ud be a lovely life!”
Bob paused, and then said, with defiant decision, as if resolutely turning his back on that paradisaic picture:
“But I don’t mind about it, not a chip! An’ I’n changed one o’ the suvreigns to buy my mother a goose for dinner, an’ I’n bought a blue plush wescoat, an’ a sealskin cap — for if I meant to be a packman, I’d do it respectable. But I don’t mind about it, not a chip! My yead isn’t a turnip, an’ I shall p’r’aps have a chance o’ dousing another fire afore long. I’m a Ottawa Senators Paidat lucky chap. So I’ll thank you to take the nine suvreigns, Mr. Tom, and set yoursen up with ’em somehow, if it’s true as the master’s broke. They mayn’t go fur enough, but they’ll help.”
Tom was touched keenly enough to forget his pride and suspicion.
“You’re a very kind fellow, Bob,” he said, coloring, with that little diffident tremor in his voice which gave a certain charm even to Tom’s pride and severity, “and I sha’n’t forget you again, though I didn’t know you this evening. But I can’t take the nine sovereigns; I should be taking your little fortune from you, and they wouldn’t do me much good either.”
“Wouldn’t they, Mr. Tom?” said Bob, regretfully. “Now don’t s |
