In Homespun
Nesbit, E. (Edith), 1858-1924
English
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Edited by Charles Aldarondo Aldarondo@yahoo.com
IN HOMESPUN
BY E. NESBIT
LONDON 1896
THESE tales are written in an English dialect--none the less a
dialect for that it lacks uniformity in the misplacement of
aspirates, and lacks, too, strange words misunderstanded of the
reader.
In South Kent villages with names ending in 'den,' and out away on
the Sussex downs where villages end in 'hurst,' live the plain
people who talk this plain speech--a speech that should be sweeter
in English ears than the implacable consonants of a northern
kail-yard, or the soft one-vowelled talk of western hillsides.
All through the summer nights the market carts creak along the
London road; to London go the wild young man and the steady young
man who 'betters' himself. To London goes the girl seeking a
'place.' The 'beano' comes very near to this land--so near that
across its marches you may hear the sackbut and shawm from the
breaks. Once a year come the hoppers. And so the cup of the hills
holds no untroubled pool of pastoral speech. This book therefore
is of no value to a Middle English scholar, and needs no glossary.
E. NESBIT.
KENT, _March_ 1896.
CONTENTS
THE BRISTOL BOWL 1
BARRING THE WAY 24
GRANDSIRE TRIPLES 38
A DEATH-BED CONFESSION 58
HER MARRIAGE LINES 75
ACTING FOR THE BEST 104
GUILTY 125
SON AND HEIR 146
ONE WAY OF LOVE 160
COALS OF FIRE 170
THE BRISTOL BOWL
MY cousin Sarah and me had only one aunt between us, and that was my
Aunt Maria, who lived in the little cottage up by the church.
Now my aunt had a tidy little bit of money laid by, which she
couldn't in reason expect to carry with her when her time came to
go, wherever it was she might go to, and a houseful of furniture,
old-fashioned, but strong and good still. So of course Sarah and I
were not behindhand in going up to see the old lady, and taking her
a pot or so of jam in fruiting season, or a turnover, maybe, on a
baking-day, if the oven had been steady and the baking turned out
well. And you couldn't have told from aunt's manner which of us she
liked best; and there were some folks who thought she might leave
half to me and half to Sarah, for she hadn't chick nor child of her
own.
But aunt was of a having nature, and what she had once got together
she couldn't bear to see scattered. Even if it was only what she had
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