Zekil tuk it an made off wi it, an Sammywell an Mally went hooam; “Goa into th’ cellar an see for thisen,” sed Mally, “Awm as sewer yond’s awr chicken as aw’ve a nooas o’ my face.”

He went to see, and there wor his three chickens just as he’d left em.

“Nah, what am aw to do?  Theas clooas’ll nivver be like thersen agean, an awm wellny choaked.”

“Tha desarves twice as mich as tha’s getten!  To think at a chap has lived to thy time o’ life an connot tell th’ difference between a cock an a hen.  Tha must be daft.”

“Daft!  Soa are ta daft!  Tha knew noa moor nor me.  But tha can tak thi chickens, an goa to blazes wi em for owt aw care!  It wor thee at wanted em, it wor nooan o’ me!”

“Tha’rt net spaikin trewth—­”

“Well, tha’rt another!  If it hadn’t been for thee awst ha been i’th chapel this minnit.”

“Tha’rt happen as weel at hooam, for tha’rt nooan in a fit state o’ mind for th’ chapel.”

“Awm nooan in a fit state o’ body nawther aw think.  Just luk at theas clooas!”

“Goa upstairs an change em, an aw’ll see what aw can do wi em.  Tha’rt th’ biggest fool aw ivver met i’ my life.”

What came of a Clock Almanac.

Rosa and Louisa Mellit wor dressmakkers—­they’d nawther father nor mother, an nowt to live on but what they could addle wi ther fingers, an that worn’t mich; for tho’ they’d had a bit ov a shop for ten year, asteead o’th’ customers gettin mooar, they gate steadily less—­nah an then they’d a dress to mak for a sarvant lass or some o’th naybors’ wives or dowters, but when th’ dresses wor made an sent hooam, monny a time they didn’t get paid for em for months an months, an often enuff they nivver finger’d th’ brass at all.

Soa as th’ years went on things went from bad to worse, an asteead o’ payin ready money for jock as they bowt, they’d to get it on th’ strap, until ther worn’t a place near whear they’d trust em onny mooar.  They’d selled as much o’ ther furnitur as they could till they’d nowt else left at onnybody wod buy; an they’d popt bits o’ things, sich as books an odds an ends, till they’d nowt else left to pop.  An nah th’ rent day wor next mornin, an barrin abaat hawf a soverin they hadn’t onnythin to pay it wi.

“If we could nobbut get us own debts paid,” sed Louisa one neet, when th’ shutters were up an they wor talkin things ovver, “we could do nicely—­awm sewer Missis Rhodes could pay that three paand shoo owes us easy enuff if shoo wod.”

“Aw ax’d her to-day,” sed Rosa, “an shoo sed shoo’d try an let us have five shillin at Midsummer.”

“What’s five shillin then, when we’ve eight paand ten to pay to morn?”

They booath sat ovver a handful o’ coils ther wor i’th grate an sed nowt for a bit, then Rosa sed,

“Ther’s yond length o’ black silk we’ve had soa long, that piece Missis Jackson ordered an then wod’nt tak; we mun sell that, it cost fower paand, happen we can get three for it.  Whear is it?”