"Polly Powlett bain't made
up her moind yet atween t' chaps as is arter her. They say as she
sent John Stukeley, the smith, to the roight about last Sunday;
he ha' been arter her vor the last year. Some thowt she would have
him, some didn't. He ha' larning, you see, can read and wroite
foine, and ha' got a smooth tongue, and knows how to talk to gals, so
some thought she would take him; oi knew well enough she wouldn't
do nowt of the koind, for oi ha' heard her say he were a mischievous
chap, and a cuss to Varley. Thou know'st, Maister Ned, they do
say, but in course oi knows nowt about it, as he be the head of
the Luddites in this part of Yorkshire.
"Luke Marner he be dead against King Lud, he be, and so be many of
the older men here; it's most the young uns as takes to them ways;
and nateral, Polly she thinks as Luke does, or perhaps," and Bill
laughed, "it's Polly as thowt that way first, and Luke as thinks
as she does. However it be, she be dead set agin them, and she's
said to me jest the same thing as thou'st been a-saying; anyhow, it
be sartain as Polly ha' said no to John Stukeley, not as she said
nowt about it, and no one would ha' known aboot it ef he hadn't
gone cussing and swearing down at the 'Dog.'
"I thinks. Maister Ned, as we shall ha' trouble afore long. The
men ha been drilling four or five years now, and oi know as they
ha' been saying, What be the good of it when nowt is done and the
wages gets lower and lower? They have preachments now out on t'
moor on Sunday, and the men comes from miles round, and they tells
me as Stukeley and others, but him chiefly, goes on awful agin t'
maisters, and says, There's Scripture vor it as they owt to smite
'em, and as how tyrants owt vor to be hewed in pieces.
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