FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124  
125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   >>   >|  
lmet on the table, and, having flung himself into a chair, seized his youngest child, a little girl, in his arms, raised her high above his head and laughed in her face; at which the child chuckled and crowed to the best of its ability. Meanwhile his eldest son, Joe junior, immediately donned the helmet, seized the poker, thrust the head of it into a bucket of water, and, pointing the other end at a supposed fire, began to work an imaginary hand-pump with all his might. "It's goin' out, daddy," cried the urchin. "Sure, he's a true chip o' the owld block," observed his mother, who was preparing the evening meal of the family; "he's uncommon fond o' fire an' wather." "Molly, my dear," said the fireman, "I'd have ye kape a sharp eye on that same chip, else his fondness for fire may lead to more wather than ye'd wish for." "I've bin thinkin' that same meself, honey," replied Mrs Corney, placing a pile of buttered toast on the table. "Shure didn't I kitch him puttin' a match to the straw bed the other day! Me only consolation is that ivery wan in the house knows how to use the hand-pump. Ah, then, ye won't believe it, Joe, but I catched the baby at it this mornin', no later, an' she'd have got it to work, I do believe, av she hadn't tumbled right over into the bucket, an' all but drownded herself. But, you know, the station's not far off, if the house did git alight. Shure ye might run the hose from the ingin to here without so much as drawin' her out o' the shed. Now, then, Joe, tay's ready, so fall to." Joe did fall to with the appetite of a man who knows what it is to toil hard, late and early. Joe junior laid aside the helmet and poker, and did his duty at the viands like the true son of a fireman--not to say an Irishman--and for five minutes or so the family enjoyed themselves in silence. After that Joe senior heaved a sigh, and said that it would be about time for him to go and see the old lady. "What can it be she wants?" asked Mrs Corney. "Don't know," replied her husband. "All I know is that she's the old lady as was bundled neck and crop out o' the first-floor windy o' the house in Holborn by Frank Willders. She's a quare owld woman that. She's got two houses, no less; wan over the coachmaker's shop--the shop bein' her property--an' wan in Russell Square. They say she's rich enough to line her coffin with goold an inch thick. Spakin' o' that, Molly my dear, a quare thing happened to me th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124  
125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

family

 

wather

 

replied

 
Corney
 
fireman
 

bucket

 
seized
 

junior

 

helmet

 

appetite


Square
 

coffin

 

alight

 

Spakin

 

Russell

 
drawin
 

happened

 

coachmaker

 

Holborn

 
Willders

husband

 
bundled
 

minutes

 

Irishman

 

property

 

viands

 

enjoyed

 
houses
 

heaved

 

senior


silence

 

imaginary

 

supposed

 

thrust

 

pointing

 

urchin

 

uncommon

 

evening

 

preparing

 

observed


mother

 

donned

 

immediately

 

raised

 

youngest

 

ability

 
Meanwhile
 

eldest

 

crowed

 

laughed