Page:Her Benny - Silas K Hocking (Warne, 1890).djvu/310

286 "No ! I only know you belongs to the gentry tribe that are always down on poor chaps like us."

"You are mistaken there, Perks; I am Benny Bates."

"You!" he said in astonishment, eyeing him from head to foot. "Then you must 'ave got mighty 'igh in the perfeshun. I could never dress like that."

"I am not in the profession, as you call it," said Benny. "Not in it?"

"No." "Do you mean to say youVe kep' honest all these years?"

"Yes, I have."

"An' kep' in Liverpool?"

"No." And Benny told him where he had been.

"Jist so; you'd a-been bound to take up the perfeshun if you 'ad kep' here."

"I don't think so."

"I'm sure on it. Look 'ere: do you 'member that chat we 'ad that night I skeered yer so? Oh, lor!" And Perks laughed till the tears ran down his face. "Well, Ben, I tried bein' honest arter I got out o' quad that time. I did for sure, jist by way of speriment; but lor! 'twere no use—I was nearly starved, an' I 'ad to take up the bizness agin or else die."

"But why did not you do as I did?"

"Never thought on it, and shouldn't a-'ad pluck enough to hacted it out if I 'ad."