Read me some." "You're sure you won't laugh ?" "Bless the man! 'Ow can I tell till I've 'eard it?
Is it meant to be funny ?" "No." "Well, then, I'm not likely to laugh.

It don't come easy to me, any'ow: I seen too many clowns." She handed him the book.

He chose a poem, conquered his diffidence, and began-- "Stratford-on-Avon, Stratford-on-Avon-- My heart is full of woe: Formerly, once upon a time It was not ever so." "The love that then I faltered I now am forced to stifle; For the case is completely altered And I wish I had a rifle." "I wish I was wrecked Like Robinson Crusoe, But you cannot expect A canal-boat to do so." "Perhaps I ought to explain, though ?" he suggested, breaking off.
"If you don't mind." "You see I got a brother--a nelder brother, an' by name 'Enery; an' last year he went for a miner in South Africa, at a place that I can't neither spell nor pronounce till it winds up with 'bosh.' So we'll call it Bosh." "Right-o! But why did he go for that miner?
To relieve 'is feelin's ?" "You don't understand.

He went out _as_ a miner, havin' been a pit-hand at the Blackstone Colliery, north o' Bursfield.

Well, one week-end-- about a month before he started--he took a noliday an' went a trip with me to Stratford aboard this very boat.