Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/60

 when Dicky Perrott, emerging from Jerry Gullen's back yard, made for Shoreditch High Street by way of the "Posties"—the passage with posts at the end of Old Jago Street. His purpose was to snatch a handful of hay from some passing wagon, or of mixed fodder from some unguarded nosebag, wherewith to reward the sympathy of Jerry Gullen's canary. But by the "Posties," at the Edge Lane corner, Tommy Rann, capless and with a purple bump on his forehead, came flying into his arms, breathless, exultant, a babbling braggart. He had fought Johnny Leary and Joe Dawson, he said, one after the other, and pretty nigh broke Johnny Leary's blasted neck; and Joe Dawson's big brother was after him now with a bleed'n' shovel. So the two children ran on together and sought the seclusion of their own back yard, where the story of Tommy Rann's prowess, with scowls and the pounding of imaginary foes, and the story