"Aw well then, yu must let I pay 'ee when I sold 'em. An't got it now. Could ha' gived 'ee tenpence down."
With a mackerel stuck by the gills on the tip of each finger, I came in house. The children were being got ready for school. When I returned downstairs with some of the fishiness washed off, Mrs Widger was distributing the school bank-cards and Monday morning pennies. (By the time the children leave school, they will have saved thus, penny by penny, enough to provide them with a new rig-out for service—or Sunday wear.) There was a frizzling in the topsy-turvy little kitchen.
A DARING RASCAL
"Mam! Vish!"
"Mam! I wants some vish. Mam 'Idger...."
"Yu shall hae some fish another time."
"No-o-o!"
"Go on!"
"Well, jam zide plaate then."
Jimmy's finger was in the jampot.