Page 120 - sons-and-lovers

where the Morels lived there were not many young things.
So the few were more united. Boys and girls played together,
the girls joining in the fights and the rough games, the boys
taking part in the dancing games and rings and make-be-
lief of the girls.
Annie and Paul and Arthur loved the winter evenings,
when it was not wet. They stayed indoors till the colliers
were all gone home, till it was thick dark, and the street
would be deserted. Then they tied their scarves round their
necks, for they scorned overcoats, as all the colliers’ chil-
dren did, and went out. The entry was very dark, and at the
end the whole great night opened out, in a hollow, with a lit-
tle tangle of lights below where Minton pit lay, and another
far away opposite for Selby. The farthest tiny lights seemed
to stretch out the darkness for ever. The children looked
anxiously down the road at the one lamp-post, which stood
at the end of the field path. If the little, luminous space were
deserted, the two boys felt genuine desolation. They stood
with their hands in their pockets under the lamp, turning
their backs on the night, quite miserable, watching the dark
houses. Suddenly a pinafore under a short coat was seen,
and a long-legged girl came flying up.
‘Where’s Billy Pillins an’ your Annie an’ Eddie Dakin?’
‘I don’t know.’
But it did not matter so much—there were three now.
They set up a game round the lamp-post, till the others
rushed up, yelling. Then the play went fast and furious.
There was only this one lamp-post. Behind was the great
scoop of darkness, as if all the night were there. In front,

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