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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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I thought it best to go back. As I drew nearer to them, trying to propitiate the tinker by my looks, I observed that the woman had a black eye. 'Where are you going?' said the tinker, gripping the bosom of my shirt with his blackened hand. 'I am going to Dover,' I said. 'Where do you come from?' asked the tinker, giving his hand another turn in my shirt, to hold me more securely. 'I come from London,' I said. 'What lay are you upon?' asked the tinker. 'Are you a prig?' 'N-no,' I said. 'Ain't you, by G--? If you make a brag of your honesty to me,' said the tinker, 'I'll knock your brains out.' With his disengaged hand he made a menace of striking me, and then looked at me from head to foot. 'Have you got the price of a pint of beer about you?' said the tinker. 'If you have, out with it, afore I take it away!' I should certainly have produced it, but that I met the woman's look, and saw her very slightly shake her head, and form 'No!' with her lips. 'I am very poor,' I said, attempting to smile, 'and have got no money.' 'Why, what do you mean?' said the tinker, looking so sternly at me, that I almost feared he saw the money in my pocket. 'Sir!' I stammered. 'What do you mean,' said the tinker, 'by wearing my brother's silk handkerchief! Give it over here!' And he had mine off my neck in a moment, and tossed it to the woman. The woman burst into a fit of laughter, as if she thought this a |
