Page 197 - sons-and-lovers

his hand. He started, and laughed. ‘Rap, rap, rap!’ went the
bird’s beak in his palm. He laughed again, and the other
boys joined.
‘She knocks you, and nips you, but she never hurts,’ said
Paul, when the last corn had gone. ‘ Now, Miriam,’ said
Maurice, ‘you come an ‘ave a go.’
‘No,’ she cried, shrinking back.
‘Ha! baby. The mardy-kid!’ said her brothers.
‘It doesn’t hurt a bit,’ said Paul. ‘It only just nips rather
nicely.’
‘No,’ she still cried, shaking her black curls and shrink-
ing.
‘She dursn’t,’ said Geoffrey. ‘She niver durst do anything
except recite poitry.’
‘Dursn’t jump off a gate, dursn’t tweedle, dursn’t go on
a slide, dursn’t stop a girl hittin’ her. She can do nowt but
go about thinkin’ herself somebody. ‘The Lady of the Lake.’
Yah!’ cried Maurice.
Miriam was crimson with shame and misery.
‘I dare do more than you,’ she cried. ‘You’re never any-
thing but cowards and bullies.’
‘Oh, cowards and bullies!’ they repeated mincingly,
mocking her speech.
‘Not such a clown shall anger me,
A boor is answered silently,’
he quoted against her, shouting with laughter.
She went indoors. Paul went with the boys into the or-
chard, where they had rigged up a parallel bar. They did
feats of strength. He was more agile than strong, but it

1 Sons and Lovers