The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Homespun, by Edith Nesbit

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Title: In Homespun

Author: Edith Nesbit

Posting Date: July 26, 2009 [EBook #4378]
Release Date: August, 2003
First Posted: January 20, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN HOMESPUN ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines.

IN HOMESPUN

BY E. NESBIT

LONDON 1896

THESE tales are written in an English dialect--none the less a
dialect for that it lacks uniformity in the misplacement of
aspirates, and lacks, too, strange words misunderstanded of the
reader.

In South Kent villages with names ending in 'den,' and out away on
the Sussex downs where villages end in 'hurst,' live the plain
people who talk this plain speech--a speech that should be sweeter
in English ears than the implacable consonants of a northern
kail-yard, or the soft one-vowelled talk of western hillsides.

All through the summer nights the market carts creak along the
London road; to London go the wild young man and the steady young
man who 'betters' himself. To London goes the girl seeking a
'place.' The 'beano' comes very near to this land--so near that
across its marches you may hear the sackbut and shawm from the
breaks. Once a year come the hoppers. And so the cup of the hills
holds no untroubled pool of pastoral speech. This book therefore
is of no value to a Middle English scholar, and needs no glossary.

E. NESBIT.

KENT, _March_ 1896.

CONTENTS

THE BRISTOL BOWL
BARRING THE WAY
GRANDSIRE TRIPLES
A DEATH-BED CONFESSION
HER MARRIAGE LINES
ACTING FOR THE BEST
GUILTY
SON AND HEIR
ONE WAY OF LOVE
COALS OF FIRE

THE BRISTOL BOWL

MY cousin Sarah and me had only one aunt between us, and that was my
Aunt Maria, who lived in the little cottage up by the church.

Now my aunt had a tidy little bit of money laid by, which she
couldn't in reason expect to carry with her when her time came to
go, wherever it was she might go to, and a houseful of furniture,
old-fashioned, but strong and good still. So of course Sarah and I
were not behindhand in going up to see t