Pure as the Lily Read Free Page B

bobbing all the while and she whispered to him, “I know you will, Granda. And mind’—she now poked her nose close to his “ I want interest. “ They came out of the hut laughing loudly; and now Peter put his arm around her waist and, in a deep musical voice, he began to sing:
    “I love a lassie, A bonny, bonny lassie;
    She’s as pure as the lily in the dell;
    She’s as sweet as the heather, The bonny, purple heather, Mary, me Scotch bluebell. “ A man’s voice came across the allotment shouting, You’re in good voice the day, Peter,” and Peter called back, “ Never better, Sam. Never better. It’s this warm weather. “ They laughed while their breaths formed clouds in the biting air.
    When they came up to Alee, Mary walked between them, and, thrusting the bass bag at her father, she said, “Will you carry that. Da?” Then she linked her arms in theirs, and, laughing and stumbling over the rough
    land, they went from the allotment They stopped when they reached Biddle Street, and Peter, still in high fettle, cried, “We’ve come to the parting of the ways, my love,” and Mary, taking up his tone and mimicking his voice, said, “Goodbye.
    Goodbye; we may never meet again! Ronald Colman, big picture, last Tuesday night. “ And as Peter and Mary laughed together again Alee said, You two should have your heads looked at.
    Come on you’ he grabbed Mary’s arm ‘else the town crier will be out lookin’ for us. “
    “Just a minute.” Mary thrust her hand into her pocket.
    “Here, Granda.”
    She held out two mintoes towards the old man, and as he took them he said, “Oh, mintoes! Good lass, I love a mintoe. But, you know’—he thrust his finger at her ‘if I go in suckin’ one of these your grannie’ll be on me like a prairie dog, she will, she’ll swear that I’m just coverin’ up me breath. And where did I get the money for drink! An’ she’s stood enough of me coming in as full as a gun, an’ she’s going off with Charlie Riddle.”
    “Aw, come on.” Alee tossed his head impatiently as he pulled Mary away from his father.
    Tar-rah! “ called out Peter.
    “Tar-rah, Granda,” Mary called back. Tar-rah! “
    “Aw, tar-rah, goodbye, and so long!” said Alee. Then a few steps further on he looked at Mary, and she at him, and she slipped her hand once again through his arm, when they both laughed softly and Mary said quietly, “I love him,” and Alee replied, “Well, I hope you love him enough for both of us at this moment, ‘cos he got that threepence out of you, didn’t he?”
    “Oh, Da! what does it matter? Threepence!” And then she remembered, he very likely hadn’t threepence; the few coppers her ma allowed him out of the depleted dole, depleted because there were two people now working in the family, he would likely have spent on his trip across the water this morning. She knew he had felt a bit better when neither her mother nor she was working and for six weeks at a time he could tip up twenty-seven shillings on to the kitchen table as if it was his wages. She thought now she had been foolish, she should have given the threepence to him and not to her gran da

Chapter Two
    95 Cornice Street comprised four rooms, a scullery and two staircases.
    It had a lavatory in the backyard, separate from the one belonging to 93, but it shared the wash-house and the only supply of water, a yard tap, with the tenants downstairs.
    Alice Walton had been known to brag that her house was the best furnished in the street, and on this she was right When in 1916 and at the age of seventeen she had married Alee, he was just out of his time in the shipyard and owing to the war earning good money. By 1918 he was earning treble what his father had been earning in 1914. From the first Alice had known what she wanted out of life and had been determined to get it. The determination had brought her from one furnished room at the top of the Church Bank to two rooms in Hope Street, then on to four