"Pushing a junk-cart ain't so easy," she said, and for a moment she stood there huddled over the handle; then, taking a long, deep breath, like Grit used to do, she straightened herself and sang out, clear and loud, above the noises of the cavernous street: "Rags ... old iron ... bottles and ra-ags.

"They're making so much racket," murmured Dave, lingering by his own door, "that, the first thing we know, a duty officer will swoop down and rag the bunch.

But this view of things presents no more ground for neglecting grammar, and making coarse and vulgar example our model of speech, than for neglecting dress, and making baize and rags the fashionable costume.

"'An' thou in rags an' a garret,' said I. "'An' I in rags an' hell,' said he, sor, looking down at himself.

As God's me judge I felt a pride in rags an' the horny hand.'

Thy covering is the tatters of old tents, Thy pillow is the stones upon the hearth. All clad in rags thou hast a heavy sleep Awaking to another stupid day.

The beggar's rags fluttering in air, Does to rags the heavens tear.

"'An' thou in rags an' a garret,' said I. "'An' I in rags an' hell,' said he, sor, looking down at himself.

We'll rag old Honeybrook into telling us some of his stories.

" THE SACK OF EMERALDS One bad October night in the high wolds beyond Wiltshire, with a north wind chaunting of winter, with the old leaves letting go their hold one by one from branches and dropping down to decay, with a mournful sound of owls, and in fearsome loneliness, there trudged in broken boots and in wet and windy rags an old man, stooping low under a sack of emeralds.

"A pride in rags an' poverty. Bring that into thy book an' let thy best thinking bear upon it.

Had he been followed, it would have been difficult to detect in that inert mass of rags any semblance to a known form or figure.

I had a good dress for Sunday too but aint got none dese days, jes looky, chile, dese ole rags de bes I got.

The beggar's rags fluttering in air, Does to rags the heavens tear.