And the Misses
Callear, who conferred a favour on their customers in serving
them, didn't like it.
He became reminiscent.
'Aye!' he said, 'when I left th' Five Towns fifty-two years sin'
to go weaving i' Derbyshire wi' my mother's brother, tay were ten
shilling a pun'. Us had it when us were sick--which wasna' often.
We worked too hard for be sick. Hafe past five i' th' morning till
eight of a night, and then Saturday afternoon walk ten mile to
Glossop with a week's work on ye' back, and home again wi' th'
brass.
'They've lost th' habit of work now-a-days, seemingly,' he went
on, as the car moved off once more, but slowly, because of the
vast crowds emerging from the Knype football ground. 'It's
football, Saturday; bands of a Sunday; football, Monday; ill i'
bed and getting round, Tuesday; do a bit o' work Wednesday;
football, Thursday; draw wages Friday night; and football,
Saturday. And wages higher than ever. It's that as beats me--
wages higher than ever--
'Ye canna' smoke with any comfort i' these cars,' he added, when
Harold had got clear of the crowds and was letting out. He
regretfully put his pipe in his pocket.
Harold skirted the whole length of the Five Towns from south to
north, at an average rate of perhaps thirty miles an hour; and
quite soon the party found itself on the outer side of Turnhill,
and descending the terrible Clough Bank, three miles long, and of
a steepness resembling the steepness of the side of a house.
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