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"They kep doggin on him unduds on em.... Sich faces on em.... Ow, my God! I sees em now." He shivered and glanced behind him. "And he talkin back at em, easy as you please, chaffin em like.... Seem they dursn't go for to touch him.... Round to the back door.... Old Piper." Parson and boy were hanging over him. "Slipp'd out of his chair ... layin on the ground ... all anyhow ... no legs and all.
Thaa knows it used to be hard afore when they were all chaffin' me at th' factory, but they can talk their tungs off naa for aught I care. But they'll soon find it aat. 'None as soon as thaa thinks, Matt. 'Aw think aw'd tell mi mother, lass, if aw were thee. 'Let her find it aat, as t'others 'll hev to do. 'As thaa likes, lass.
My enjoyment of their simple hospitality would have been perfect but for the embarrassment I felt at the many apologies with which it was offered. Mrs. Chaffin knew as 'ow the tea was not as good as I was used to drinking, but she 'oped it didn't taste "murky." I assured her that it did not taste murky, although a little doubtful as to the exact significance of the word when applied to tea.
'N' hot days, when th' hands was chaffin' 'n' singin', th' black wheels 'n' rollers was alive, starin' down at me, 'n' th' shadders o' th' looms was like snakes creepin', creepin' anear all th' time. They was very good to me, th' hands was, very good. Ther' 's lots o' th' Master's people down there, though they never heard His name: preachers don't go there. But He'll see to 't.
"But, you remember don't you? how Jobbin took to chaffin' of Lancy Doane, and how Faddo's tongue got sharper as the time got on, and many a nasty word was said of coast-guards and excisemen, and all that had to do with law and gover'ment. Cuts there were at some of Laney's wild doings in the past, and now and then they'd turn to me, saying what they thought would set me girdin' Lancy too.
Chaffin was the only member of the family who seemed to entertain feelings as serious as my own. She had dreamed that I would not come back again, and we all laughed at her then, but when the swift years had revealed some of their secrets, we thought of this prophetic dream with a sadness deeper than any that comes to childish hearts.
In the silence that followed, she wondered wildly if she had made him angry at last. Then he spoke in his usual good-natured drawl, and her heart gave a great throb of relief. "I think you're chaffin'," he said. "I'm not," she assured him feverishly. "I'm not indeed. I always mean what I say. That is " "Of course," said Tots, with kindly reassurance. "I knew that.
What is there in it that thrills me so strangely? When she ceases speaking she is standing almost within reach of my hand. Suddenly her eyes meet mine and I see Hester Chaffin standing there on the stage and looking into my face. She recognizes me, for she seems confused and proceeds with evident embarrassment. I turned to Rayel he, too, was deeply moved by this great surprise.
'Tis a rare new fancy." "Rot," said 'Arry. Then turning to the giggling Maudlin, he whispered: "Saw it las' toime. 'Is lordship got a piece o' moy moind that oi reeled off into it about this 'ere swindle. Fawney that old bloke there charging a tanner apiece to us for chaffin' a bit of a barrel."
"'I'll bet you a hundred, sez I, 'that I don't, for I've signed papers as keeps me ashore, an' the parson has witnessed the deed. "So we sat there, he urgin' me to ship, an' I chaffin' him cheerful over the bottle.
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