"Have you begun your practising?"
"It ain't my way, sir, for to go a-puttin' off when I sees a duty plain afore me. Soon 's I sees my way, I up and does it. Yes, I was a-practising yesterday evening; an' I'd just got to that 'ere point, sir, as I'd worked up a picture-like of a lot o' men round, all a-listenin' as meek as lambs, and I a-giving out o' my opinions—I'd got to that 'ere point, sir, when Mary Anne she come in, an' says she,—"
"'Why, Peter,' says she, 'whatever are you after,' says she, 'a-hitting out at the candlestick like that?' says she."
"'That's action,' says I. 'A fine thing is action,' says I, 'and Pope's got a lot of it. Gives him a sort of hold-like on people's minds, Mary Anne,' says I."
"Mary Anne she didn't see it, and she fell a-laughing at me, fit to bu'st; but there's no manner o' doubt it is so, sir. Nor action ain't hard to get, neither. It's just a swing, an' a stamp, an' a bang of the feet now and agin, and a deal o' tossing about o' the arms between times. Just a sort of emphaticallizing of the words by means o' the body, you see, sir. I've been a-telling Holdfast he's got to work up his action, afore he speaks agin. The men likes a lot of action."
"I shouldn't recommend either you or Holdfast to take Pope for your model," said the much diverted Mr. Hughes, as he moved away. "A statement, well worded, may be quite as emphatic without the swing or the stamp."
Peter stood motionless, weighing this parting utterance. He rubbed his forehead more than once in dubious style.
"'A fine thing is action,' says I, 'and Pope's got a lot of it.'"
"Don't know as I can give in to that 'ere notion neither. There ain't no doubt as the men likes action. A speaker as didn't stir a finger wouldn't make no way with our chaps. They likes a stamp and a bang, once and agin. Same time, they did listen pretty patient to Holdfast; for all he'd no action, nor didn't lay on the butter."