rent to pay and is afeard of the bums," said Nixon;
"and he has got two waistcoats!"

"Besides," said another, "Diggs' tommy is only open once a-week, and if
you're not there in time, you go over for another seven days. And it's
such a distance, and he keeps a body there such a time--it's always a
day's work for my poor woman; she can't do nothing after it, what
with the waiting and the standing and the cussing of Master Joseph
Diggs,--for he do swear at the women, when they rush in for the first
turn, most fearful."

"They do say he's a shocking little dog."

"Master Joseph is wery wiolent, but there is no one like old Diggs for
grabbing a bit of one's wages. He do so love it! And then he says you
never need be at no loss for nothing; you can find everything under my
roof. I should like to know who is to mend our shoes. Has Gaffer Diggs a
cobbler's stall?"

"Or sell us a penn-orth of potatoes," said another. "Or a ha'porth of
milk."

"No; and so to get them one is obliged to go and sell some tommy, and
much one gets for it. Bacon at ninepence a-pound at Diggs', which you
may get at a huckster's for sixpence, and therefore the huckster can't
be expected to give you more than fourpence halfpenny, by which token
the tommy in our field just cuts our wages atween the navel."

"And that's as true as if you heard it in church, Master Waghorn."

"This Diggs seems to be an oppressor of the people," said a voice from a
distant corner of the room.

Master Nixon looked around, smoked, puffed, and then said, "I should
think he wor; as bloody-a-hearted butty as ever jingled."

"But what business has a butty to keep a shop?" inquired the stranger.
"The law touches him."

"I should like to know who would touch the law," said Nixon; "not I
for one. Them tommy shops is very delicate things; they won't stand no
handling, I can tell you that."

"But he cannot force you to take goods," said the stranger; "he must pay
you in current coin of the realm, if you demand it."

"They only pay us once in five weeks," said a collier; "and how is a man
to live meanwhile. And suppose we were to make shift for a month or five
weeks, and have all our money coming, and have no tommy out of the shop,
what would the butty say to me? He would say, 'do you want e'er a note
this time' and if I was to say 'no,' then he would say, 'you've no call
to go down to work any more here.' And that's what I call forsation."

"Ay, ay," said another colli