Читать книгу Lark Rise to Candleford онлайн
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I wish, I wish, 'twer all in vain, I wish I were a maid again! A maid again I ne'er shall be Till oranges grow on an apple treeor:
[Pg 66]
Now all you young chaps, take a warning by me, And do not build your nest at the top of any tree, For the green leaves they will wither and the flowers they will decay, And the beauty of that fair maid will soon pass away.One comparatively recent settler, who had only lived at the hamlet about a quarter of a century, had composed a snatch for himself, to sing when he felt homesick. It ran:
Where be Dedington boo-oys, where be they now? They be at Dedington at the 'Plough'; If they be-ent, they be at home, And this is the 'Wagon and Horses'.But, always, sooner or later, came the cry, 'Let's give the old 'uns a turn. Here you, Master Price, what about "It was my father's custom and always shall be mine", or "Lord Lovell stood", or summat of that sort' as has stood the testing o' time?' and Master Price would rise from his corner of the settle, using the stick he called his 'third leg' to support his bent figure as he sang: