“I have forged a key,” one of them replied. The bobby, however, looked at them indulgently. “Forgot, you mean,” said he emphatically.
But difficulties of this kind are not confined to foreign wanderings. You can experience them at home, in Scotland, for example, or on the burring border, or even in Yorkshire. I was tramping across Yorkshire one summer, and I realized how outlandish my English sounded. They speak a different language up there. I had to make every one repeat everything twice. They frequently mistook what I said. They made me say it twice also. They reckoned I did not come from these parts.
I went into an inn one night and asked for a room.
The landlady, an elderly dame with a huge red face, asked me if I meant a room.
I said “Yes.” She said, “Ted, this gentleman wants a room.”
“All right,” he exclaimed, “in a minute.”
“Mine will be my usual drop o’ Scotch,” said an old fellow, nudging me as he went past.
I sat down in the bar parlor.
Presently the young man came and inquired if I’d like water in my room.
“Yes, I suppose so,” I answered patiently.