Page:Barnes (1879) Poems of rural life in the Dorset dialect (combined).djvu/191

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Tom, how be’st? Zoo thou’st a-got thy neäme Among the leaguers, then, as I’ve a heärd.

Aye, John, I have, John; an’ I ben’t afeärd To own it. Why, who woulden do the seäme? We shant goo on lik’ this long, I can tell ye. Bread is so high an’ wages be so low, That, after workèn lik’ a hoss, you know, A man can’t earn enough to vill his belly.

Ah! well! Now there, d’ye know, if I wer sure That theäsem men would gi’e me work to do All drough the year, an’ always paÿ me mwore Than I’m a-earnèn now, I’d jein em too. If I wer sure they’d bring down things so cheap, That what mid buy a pound o’ mutton now Would buy the hinder quarters, or the sheep, Or what wull buy a pig would buy a cow: In short, if they could meäke a shillèn goo In market just so vur as two, Why then, d’ye know, I’d be their man; But, hang it! I don’t think they can.