“When do we start for Macclesfield?”
“Happen. Wednesday, happen Thursday. Not o’ Friday if aw can help, for luck. Any road as soon after next market day as we can load, bi what thi father says.”
“Well, ’Si, listen to me. I’ve promised George I would bear a hand i’ this Cartwright job, an’ I cannot go back o’ my word. Besides I’ve promised more nor George. I cannot tell you all, ’Si, but my word’s passed to stand by John Booth, an’ see him safe out o’ this muddle; an’ see him safe out of it I will if I can.”
“Petticoats again,” muttered ’Siah.
“After that, I promise yo, ’Si, I’ll be main glad to be clear of the whole business, and so I’ll tell my cousin George. If machinery’s to come we must find some better way of meeting it than with a sledge hammer.”
“Ah! that’s th’ sensiblest word tha ever spoke, Ben Bamforth.”
“But mark, ’Si, Bess must not be ready to start till after Saturday. Yo’ understand: a nail in her hoof or a looseness i’ th’ bowels, I leave it to thee, ’Si. But leave here till after Saturday I won’t, an’ neither will yo’, if yo’re th’ man I take thee for!”
“A wilful man mun have his way. Go to thi baggin’, Ben. Don’t let ’em see us talkin’ together. Aw understand thee, an’ tha’st have thi way; but after Saturday a team o’ horses shan’t drag me a foot after George Mellor, an’ there’s my davy on it.”
And ’Siah crossed two fingers and spat over them, and that I knew to be more binding on ’Si than any Bible oath. So I turned to go, much relieved and easier in my mind now I had shaped a clear course. But ’Siah had not quite done.
“Hauf a minnit, Ben. It had welly slipped mi mind. Has Mary said owt to thee about yon Ben Walker?”