"
"Well, Mrs Mullins, and how do you do?" she replied, in a
sweet sawney tone."
"How do you do, indeed! How are people to do in these bad
times?"
"They is indeed hard Mrs Mullins. If you could see my tommy
book! How I wish I knew figures! Made up as of last Thursday
night by that little divil, Master Joe Diggs. He has stuck it
in here and stuck it in there, till it makes one all of a-
maze. I'm sure I never had the things; and my man is out of
all patience, and says I can no more keep house than a natural
born."
"My man is a-wanting to see your man," said Mrs Mullins, with
a flashing eye; "and you know what about."
"And very natural, too," said Liza Gray; "but how are we to
pay the money we owe him, with such a tommy-book as this, good
neighbour Mullins?"
"We're as poor as our neighbours Mrs Gray; and if we are not
paid, we must borrow. It's a scarlet shame to go to the spout
because money lent to a friend is not to be found. You had it
in your need, Liza Gray, and we want it in our need; and have
it I will, Liza Gray."
"Hush, hush!" said Liza Gray; "don't wake the little-un, for
she is very fretful."
"I will have the five shillings, or I will have as good," said
Mrs Mullins.
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