8: Expulsion
THE WORTHIES OF THE HUNTERS’ ARMS BAR, Gees found, while not prepared to accept him as one of themselves or even open converse with him, talked at him this second evening. They showed off, in fact, like children in front of a stranger, and Tom Myers brought out an anecdote when his crony, Jacob Hood, gave him the opportunity by complaining about a pair of boots he had bought from a “chap wi’ a van.”
“Aye,” said Tom, “I don’t howd wi’ dealin’ wi’ them chaps, nohow. These here boots let water then, Jacob?”
“Noo, not yit, but they du most mortal draw my feet, so’s I can’t hardly walk in ’em,” Jacob explained. “I reckon ’t’ain’t good leather to du that. I had to wore the owd uns agin, mostly.”
“F’r everlastin’ moanin’ about suthin’ or other, yu are, Jacob,” observed a third wo
