No oneknew who was the father, and probably Katie
wasnt too certainherself.
Mother or any of the shopkeepers wives would have
died ofshame if theyd had bugs in the house. They said a kid like me was sure to
keep splashing the water andfrighten the fish away. Mother or any of the shopkeepers
wives would have died ofshame if theyd had bugs in the house.
It seems to youthat they were always doing exactly
the same thing.
I had some nasty red weals on the calvesof my legs
when we got to the other side of the hedge.
Inthose days beer cost twopence a pint, and unlike
the beer nowadaysit had some guts in it.
I dont think I ever remember her serving
acustomer.
Dont you get thinking youre coming withthe gang
today. Or no, not like clockwork,which suggests something mechanical.
Or no, not like clockwork,which suggests something
mechanical. Gutting his poor wife up and burying herin the coal cellar!
I realized this even bythe time I was ten years
old.
Joe had just learned the word bloody and was always
using it. Inthose days beer cost twopence a pint, and unlike the beer nowadaysit had
some guts in it. They were very strict ininsisting that you had to bite the worm
before you swallowed it.
Hewalked up to me like a tom-cat thats going to
start a fight.
I dont think I ever remember her serving acustomer.
Joe saidhe was lying, and they argued and almost fought. The fish had slipped off
the hook and fallen into the wildpeppermint under the bank.
Its quite different from the way it moves when you
twitch yourline accidentally. Butexcept on Sundays I never remember her without an
apron.
Lizards, slow-worms, toads, frogs, and newts also
stung.
The line jerking and straining and a fish on the
otherend of it! It wasnt theBoars who threw babies in the air, it was the British
soldiers! Or no, not like clockwork,which suggests something
mechanical.
But Uncle Ezekiel justlaughed in his face. She
never went into the loft behind the yard and very seldominto the shop. I realized
this even bythe time I was ten years old.
Mother was a slowreader and believed in getting her
threepennyworth out of HildasHome Companion. I seemed toknow by a kind of instinct
the places where a fish would lie. When you wentdownhill you put your feet up on the
front rests and let the pedalsgo whizzing round.
When she was cooking, all her movements
werewonderfully precise and firm.
Certainly, unlike mostbullfinches in cages, Jackie
never turned black. The next minute he was chasing me round,catching me one clip
after another. Butexcept on Sundays I never remember her without an
apron.
Then we went downinto a chalk hollow full of beds
of dead leaves and shouted to hearthe echo. Mother wasalways terrified of letting us
go anywhere near water.