“Lawk-a-massy! how ever be I to scawt[29] up? Do’ee lend a help, there’s a good soul,” said she to me.
Well, I couldn’t go by and leave her there, though I didn’t half like having to stop; so I helped to lift the wheel out, and then we pushed the cart up a few yards, and the old donkey tried to sidle it into another rut, and we had another fight with him. My blood got up at his obstinacy; I don’t believe there ever was another such a donkey in the world; so the more he backed and sidled, the more I and the old woman and the boy fought. And then the people that passed us began to laugh and joke at us, and I got very angry at them, and the old woman, and everybody; but I set my teeth, and made up my mind to get him up to the top if I stayed there all day.
I should think we must have been nearly half an hour at work, and had got on about three hundred yards or so, when a fine dog-cart on high wheels came up. I heard the gentlemen in it talking and laughing as they came near us; but I didn’t look up, and kept working away at the donkey, for I was afraid they would only joke at us.
“Oh deary me, deary me, Master Gaarge, be that you?” I heard the old woman call out; “now do’ee stop some o’ the chaps, and tell ’em to help. I be nigh caddled to death wi’ this drattled old jackass—oh dear, oh dear!”
“Why, Betty! what in the world are you after?” said a merry voice, which I thought I had heard before; and, looking up, I saw the young gentleman who had promised me the song.
“Oh, you see, Master Gaarge, I thought as I might turn a honest penny if I could only win up to the pastime wi’ some nuts and brandy-balls. So I loaned neighbour Tharne’s cart as he fetches coals from the canal wi’, and his ass—and if ’twas Balaam’s ass hisself he couldn’t be no wus—and here I be; and if it hadn’t a been for this kind gentleman”—
“Well, stop your talk, Betty, and take hold of his head,” said he, jumping out of his dog-cart and giving the reins to the one who was beside him. “Ah, good morning,” nodding to me, as he came to the back of the cart, “now then, with a will! shove away!”
So we shoved the cart hard against the donkey’s legs. “Don’t pull, Betty, let him have his head; just keep hold of the reins. Look out, boy; stop him making for the ditch;” and away went Master Neddy scrambling up hill, for he found that the cart was coming over his back if he didn’t move on. Master George was as strong as a ballast heaver, and the donkey seemed to find it out quick enough, for we were up the hill in no time.
“Bless your kind heart, Master Gaarge!” almost sobbed the old woman; “I be all straight now. Do’ee hev summat to suck now, or some nuts, and this kind gentleman too; you allus wur fond o’ suck;” and she began untying the neck of one of her sacks.
“Oh, Betty, you wicked old lone woman!” said he, “haven’t you made me ill often enough with your nastinesses fifteen years ago?”