"
"Where were you born?"
"Camden Tahn."
Here was a nice beginning to a rural life! What place could be the
country while this boy Hopkins was about? He would have given to the
Garden of Eden the atmosphere of an outlying suburb.
"Do you want to earn an occasional shilling?" I put it to him.
"I'd rather it come reggler," said Hopkins. "Better for me
kerrickter."
"You drop that Cockney accent and learn Berkshire, and I'll give you
half a sovereign when you can talk it," I promised him. "Don't, for
instance, say 'ain't,'" I explained to him. "Say 'bain't.' Don't
say 'The young lydy, she came rahnd to our plice;' say 'The missy,
'er coomed down; 'er coomed, and 'er ses to the maister, 'er ses . .
. ' That's the sort of thing I want to surround myself with here.
When you informed me that the cow was mine, you should have said:
'Whoi, 'er be your cow, surelie 'er be.'"
"Sure it's Berkshire?" demanded Hopkins. "You're confident about
it?" There is a type that is by nature suspicious.
"It may not be Berkshire pure and undefiled," I admitted. "It is
what in literature we term 'dialect.' It does for most places
outside the twelve-mile radius. The object is to convey a feeling of
rustic simplicity. Anyhow, it isn't Camden Town."
I started him with a shilling then and there to encourage him. He
promised to come round in the evening for one or two books, written
by friends of mine, that I reckoned would be of help to him; and I
returned to the cottage and set to work to rouse Robina.
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