"
"But why do not you state your grievances to the landlords and
lessees," said the stranger.
"I take it you be a stranger in these parts, sir," said Master
Nixon, following up this remark by a most enormous puff. He
was the oracle of his circle, and there was silence whenever
he was inclined to address them, which was not too often,
though when he spoke, his words, as his followers often
observed, were a regular ten-yard coal.
"I take it you be a stranger in these parts, sir, or else you
would know that it's as easy for a miner to speak to a
mainmaster, as it is for me to pick coal with this here clay.
Sir, there's a gulf atween 'em. I went into the pit when I
was five year old, and I count forty year in the service come
Martinmas, and a very good age, sir, for a man what does his
work, and I knows what I'm speaking about. In forty year,
sir, a man sees a pretty deal, 'specially when he don't move
out of the same spot and keeps his 'tention. I've been at
play, sir, several times in forty year, and have seen as great
stick-outs as ever happened in this country. I've seen the
people at play for weeks together, and so clammed that I never
tasted nothing but a potatoe and a little salt for more than a
fortnight.
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