to
tak for a text, it saands nice onytime unless it's at a meetin o' th'
poor law guardians, then it saands harder an' harsher someway. For mi
own part, aw've niver been able to understand exactly what it meeans. I
have an opinion o' mi own; but then aw know it must be wrong, becoss
it's so different to other fowk's. Aw wor once walkin aght wi' a chap
'at wor chock full o' charity. He wor soa full on it 'at it used to roll
aght ov his maath ivery two or three minutes, and we hadn't gone far
when we met a little lad, wi' hardly a bit o' clooas on him, an' he
luk'd as if he'd been livin o' th' smell ov a cook shop for a wick, an'
he coom beggin a hawpney. Well, to tell th' truth aw wor gooin to pass
him, for aw hadn't a fardin, but my charitable friend did stop, an' he
patted him on his heead, and axed if he he'd a father an' mother, an' if
he went to th' Sunday schooil, an if he knew his Catichism, an' then he
sed, Well, be a good boy, an' sometime when aw've a hawpny aw'l give it
thi,' an' we went away. When we'd gooan a two or three yards he sed,
'Let's have a glass o' ale, for aw'm dry--aw feel sooary for yond lad,
but yo connot allus be givin.

Sammy Bewitched.

Aw shall niver forget Sammy Sawney. He's deead nah an' it's a pity at
owt like him iver should dee, for he wor net only t' first but aw
believe t'last o' 'tsooart. Aw niver remember him as a lad, for he wor a
gooid age when aw wor born, but aw've heeard enuff abaat him to mak me
feel as if aw'd known him at that time, an' judgin' bi what aw knew on
him as an old man aw can believe it ivery word true.

Sammy's mother wor a widdy, an' he wor her only child. Shoo wor worth a
little bit o' brass, an' his fayther had been considered varry weel to
do, for he'd abaat twenty hand-loom weyvers workin for him, an' his
bumbazines wor allus considered t'best i' t'market. When Sammy wor four
year old shoo detarmined to send him to t'schooil an' have him eddicated
for a banker's clerk, for to be handlin brass all t'day long wor to her
t'happiest condition i' life.

It wor easy enough to send Sammy to t'schooil but to get him eddicated
wor another matter, an' whether it wor as t'schooil-maister sed, 'at his
heead wor too thick iver to drive owt into it, or, as his mother said,
'at t'schooilmaister knew nowt an' soa he could taich nowt, aw dooant
pretend to say.

Little Sammy hadn't a varry easy time on it, for he wor shifted abaat
throo one schooil to another