Dear heart, what a sight of
long words folks puts in a letter, more than ever drops out of their
mouths; which their fingers be longer than their tongues, I do suppose."
Maxley hailed thus information characteristically. "Then we'll say no
more about the halfpenny."
At this, Rose raised a lamentable cry, and pearly tears gushed forth.
"There, there!" said Maxley, deprecatingly; "here's two apples for ye; ye
can't get them for less: and a halfpenny or a haporth is all one to you,
but it is a great odds to me. And apples they rot; halfpence don't."
It was now nine o'clock. The bank did not open till ten; but Maxley went
and hung about the door, to be the first applicant.
As he stood there trembling with fear lest the bank should not open at
all, he thought hard, and the result was a double resolution: he would
have his money out to the last shilling; and, this done, would button up
his pockets and padlock his tongue. It was not his business to take care
of his neighbours; nor to blow the Hardies, if they paid him his money on
demand. "So not a word to my missus, nor yet to the town-crier," said he.
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