Tom, Jane and Jack the Tinker, part 6

[part 6] '....The two men turned round a corner, and saw three very large children playing. The baby, a year old, was riding an old buck-goat about the field. The two elder children, Tom Vean [a term of endearment] and young Jane, were mounted on a bull, back to back, one holding on by the horns, and the other by the tail, galloping round the field like mad, followed by the cows and dogs,--a regular "cow's courant."

"Lord, you," says one of the men to the other, "what dost a' think of that for a change?"

"But to think," says the other, "that the old giant should ever have a wife and young children here, and the people knaw nothing about it."

"Why, don't everybody say that he ate all his wives and chil'ren too. What lies people tell, don't they, you?"

"Le 's go a little farther; he won't eat we, I suppose."

"I 'll throw my pick and sho'el down the throat of an, as soon as a' do open as jaws."

"Look you," now shouts the other, "you come round a little farther just peep round the corner and thee meest see two fellows wrestling, and a woman looking on."

"Can I believe my eyes, you? Don't that woman look something like Jane I used to be courson of?"...'

Hunt 1903