"'How much for them eyes?' he axes.
"'Do 'ee want the lot?' says the chap in the shop, a reg'lar little
dandy-sprat, an' so pert as a jay-pie in June. ''Cos us makes a
reducshun on takin' a quantity,' says he.
"'Wan'll do for me,' says Lawyer Mennear.
"'They be two pund-ten apiece,' says the whipper-snapper, 'an' ten
shillin' for fixin'.'
"Well, sir, you may fancy th' ould man's face when he heerd the
price. He sot down, like as ef the wind was tuk out of hes sails,
an' says he--'I'll gie thirty shillin.'
"The shopman wudn' ha' this; so at et they went, higglin' an'
hagglin' on til 'twas agreed at las' he shud ha' the eye for two
pund-five, fixin's included. 'Twas like drawin' blood from a stone;
but th' ould man had done a stroke of bus'ness that day, so in th'
end he pulls out hes bag an' tells out the money 'pon the counter.
"'An' now,' says the whipper-snapper, 'which'll 'ee ha'? Grey's the
colour, I reckons, ef you wants a match.'
"'Drat the colour!' says ould Mennear, 'I've a-paid my price, an'
I'll ha' the biggest, ef et be bassomy-red.' [5]
"Well, the shopman laffs, o' cou'se, but lets 'n ha' hes own way; an'
th' ould man picked out the biggest--bright blue et was, suthin' the
colour of a hedgy-sparrer's egg, an' shiny-clear like a glass-alley.
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