"I would recommend you very strongly to go on the square when you get out, and not on the cross; you might easily make a better living by hawking than at this weary work, at all events."
"I mean to go on the square as long as I can do without working, I am not able for hard work and I do not intend to do any more, neither in nor out of prison; but if I can't make a living honestly you may be sure I shall not starve."
CHAPTER XIX.
PRISONERS' CONVERSATIONS—LARRY AND TIM GET INTO CHOKEY—BIG CROPPY—WHAT PAT GETS "IN FOR"—MALICIOUS GAMBLING—PAT'S PATENT FOR GETTING A NEW COAT—DICK'S EXPLOITS—NED'S ADVENTURES AND ESCAPES—A NEW SCREW ARRIVES—A PRISONER EMPTIES THE WINE CUP AT THE ALTAR—NED, DICK, AND PAT'S OPINION ABOUT BADGES, CLASSIFICATION, HEAD BLOKES, PRISONERS' AID SOCIETY, AND THE IRISH SYSTEM.
The following are specimens of the conversations which take place among the prisoners as they meet in the ordinary course of their prison employment. They were quite unaware that there was anyone near listening to them, or taking more than an ordinary interest in their remarks to each other, and my report may be taken as a perfectly accurate representation of ordinary convict conversation and phraseology.
"Well, Dick, how are you?"
"Oh! pretty well, Ned, how's yourself?"
"Well, I'm among the middlings only. That beastly bad cheese they gave us yesterday hasn't agreed with me, and I think I shall hook it up to the 'farm'[21] ] for a week or two, and get a change of diet before going home. I am only waiting to get a bit of 'snout,' and then I shall send in a sick report. Have you heard what Larry and Tim have got this morning? Larry's got three days' bread and water, seven days' penal-class diet, and 'blued' fourteen days' remission; and Tim's got three days."
"Well, Larry partly deserves it. He was a fool to let the 'screw' see he had the 'snout;' but what was Tim's offence?"