Mrs. Tregennis addressed Miss Margaret. “You’ll often have been wondering, Miss, how my Tommy came by such a funny lookin’ sort o’ face. ’Tis with cryin’ so much that ’e got ’e. ’Tis a brave pity that he be so plain.”
Tommy choked down a sob. “I do know some boys as is uglier ’n me,” he affirmed.
“Oh?” Mammy sounded sceptical.
“Jimmy Prynne’s worse ugly ’n me,” said Tommy, still shaken with sobs.
“I’d think shame if I was ee, Tommy Tregennis, callin’ a likely boy like Jimmy Prynne ugly, that would I.”
Tommy wept more loudly.
“I shouldn’t make a face like that, no, not even if my head was off.” Mammy was scornful.
Tommy felt that there was a flaw in the argument but sobbed more noisily still.
Then Mammy grew stern. “Stop that noise, Tommy,” she said, forcefully, accompanying her words with a shake.