22 J. COLE.

said Joe, to the old housekeeper; “if you did,
you'd understand why I no more dare go agen
wot Dick told me, than I dare put my ’and in
that ’ere fire. When I were quite a little chap,
I took some big yaller plums once, out of one
of the punnits father was a-packin’ for market,
and I eat’em. I don’t know to this hour wot
made me take them plums; but I remember
they were such prime big uns, big as eggs
they was, and like lumps of gold, with a sort
of blue shade over ’em. Father were very
partikler about not ’avin’ the fruit ’andled and
takin’ the bloom off, and told me to cover ’em
well with leaves. It was a broilin’ ’ot day,
and I was tired, ’avin’ been stoopin’ over the
baskits since four in the morning, and as I put
the leaves over the plums I touched ’em; they
felt so lovely and cool, and looked so juicy-
like, I felt I must eat one, and I did; there
was just six on ’em, and when I’d bin and eat
one, there seemed such a empty place left in
the punnit, that I knew father’d be sure to
see it, so I eat ’em all, and then threw the
punnit to one side. Just then, father comes
up and says, ‘Count them punnits, Dick! there