‘Well done, my wench, we’ll have another one and see how that goes. Now, my wench, bring them few shillin’s down, and let’s see what you made upon it.’
She brings the basin down, and says, ‘You telled me to make the biggest penny on it as ever I could.’
He begin to count it, and turns the basin upside down, and empties it on the table. And what was there but the one big penny?
‘Well! well!! well!!!’ he says, ‘you’ll ruin me now for life.’
‘Ah!’ she says, ‘Jack, didn’t you tell me to make the biggest penny out of it as ever I could, and that was the biggest penny as ever I seen.’
‘Well,’ he says, ‘my wench, I see you don’t understand sellin’ beer. I think I’ll buy a little pig. We’ve got plenty of taters and cabbage in the garden. Well, now, my wench, when the butcher comes round to kill the pig, you walk round the garden and count every cabbage that’s in the garden, and you get a little stick, and stick it by every cabbage in the garden, and when the butcher slays the pig up, you revide a piece of pig up for every cabbage in the garden.’
She revided a piece of pig up for every cabbage in the garden, and stuck it on every stick round the cabbages. The husband comes home again.
‘Well, my wife, how did you go on with the pig?’
‘Well, Jack, I done as you told me,’ she says. ‘I got a stick and stuck it by every cabbage, and put a piece of mate on every stick.’
‘Well! well!! well!!!’ he says, ‘where is the mate gone to now? You’ll ruin me if I stop here much longer. Pull the fire out,’ he says, ‘and I’ll get away from here.’ And he picks up his basket and throws it on his shoulder. ‘Pull that door after you,’ he says. [[265]]