Page:Digger Smith (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/59



AINT my idea uv argument to call a man a fool, An' I ain't lookin' round for bricks to 'eave at ole man Poole; But when 'e gets disputin' 'e's inclined to lose 'is 'ead. It ain't so much 'is choice uv words as 'ow the words is said.

'E's sich a coot for takin' sides, as I sez to Doreen. Sez she, "'Ow can 'e, by 'imself?" Wotever that may mean. My wife sez little things sometimes that nearly git me riled. I knoo she meant more than she said be that soft way she smiled.

To-day, when I was 'arrowin', Poole comes down to the fence To get the loan uv my long spade; an' uses that pretence To 'ave a bit uv friendly talk, an' one word leads to more, As is the way with ole man Poole, as I've remarked before.

The spade reminds 'im 'ow 'e done some diggin' in 'is day, An' diggin' brings the talk to earth, an' earth leads on to clay, Then clay quite natural reminds a thinkin' bloke uv bricks, An' mortar brings up mud, an' then, uv course, it's politics.