Part 1 (1/2)

The Adventures of Don Lavington

by George Manville Fenn

CHAPTER ONE

FOUR FOLK O' BRISTOL CITY

”Mind your head! Crikey! That was near, 'nother inch, and you'd ha'

crushed hishell”

”Well, you told me to lower down”

”No, I didn't, stupid”

”Yes, you did”

”No, I didn't You're half tipsy, or half asleep, or--”

”There, there, hold your tongue, Jeht you said loay That's enough”

”No, it arn't enough, Mas' Don Your uncle said I was to soop'rintend, and a nice row there'd ha' been when he come back if you hadn't had any head left”

”Wouldn't have mattered much, Jem nobody would have cared”

”nobody would ha' cared? Come, I like that What would your mother ha'

said to me when I carried you hoar-cask?”

”You're right, Mas' Don nobody wouldn't ha' cared You aren't wanted here Why don't you strike for liberty, o and make your fortun' in furren parts?”

”Same as you have, Mike Bannock? Now just you look ye here If ever I hears you trying to en his work, I tells Mr Chris'ain Fortun' indeed! Why, you ragged, penny-hunting, lazy, drunken rub-shoulder, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!”

”And I arn't a bit, Jem Wimble, not a bit Never you mind hiive you your father's oes like a man to see life”

”Now lookye here,” cried the sturdy, broad-faced young felloho had first spoken, as he picked up a wooden lever used for turning over the great sugar-hogsheads lying in the yard, and hoisting them into a trolly, or beneath the crane which raised them into the warehouse

”Lookye here, Mike Bannock, I never did knock aMas' Don again, has it you do, right across the back Spang!”

”Be quiet, Jeton, a dark, well set-up lad of seventeen, as he sat upon the head of a sugar-hogshead with his ars

”No, I sha'n't put the bar down, Mas' Don Your uncle left ar-barrel for when there's a 'bacco hogshead close by? Now just you feel how sticky you are”

Don got off the barrel, and made a face, as he proved with one hand the truth of the ainst the warehouse wall