Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories Read Online Free PDF Page B

kisky, sewed up nor all mops and brooms! Or that he hasn’t lapped the gutter, can’t see a hole in a ladder or been to Bungay Fair and lose both his legs!”
    But what a flare-up in the soush! He dropped into her on the spot. He’d got a capital twist for a batty fang and he showed her it was dragging time; she was sick as a horse. He was a catchy fancy-bloke.
    “You mouldy old bed-fagot, you rotten old gooseberry pudden, you ugly old Gill, you flea-ridden old moll!” he blasted. “I’ll give you jessie, you Mullingar heifer!”
    A barnacled cove (a spoffy blackberry swagger with a Newgate fringe) from the top floor back sang out: “Knife it, you head beetler! Stow faking!” But got a stunning fag on the twopenny that sent him half-way to Albertopolis.
    She had bought the rabbit with that slubberdegullion. He peppered her and clumped her and leathered her till she went flop down on the Rory O’More and then he stepped it for the frog and toad, to go to Joe Blake the Bartlemy.
    He hopped the twig on her.
    “He ought to go to the vertical care-grinder!” she chived. “He ought to be marinated! I’ll never poll up with a liver-faced, chatty, beef-headed, cupboard-headed, culver-headed, fiddle-faced, glumpish, squabby dab tros like him again!
    “I’m fairly in half-mourning—it won’t fadge, it just won’t fadge. He gives me the Jerry go Nimbles. I’ll stun him—I’ll streak. I’ll pick up my sticks and cut.”
    So she bolted and took a speel on the drum to the top of Rome.
    On Shitten Saturday, the worms pinned that scaly shaver of hers in a Tom and Jerry for starring the glaze; he went over the stile at Spike Park and got topped.
    Glossary
Village, the

London
take a fright

night (rhyming slang)
rookeries

a slow neighbourhood inhabited by dirty Irish and thieves
sloop of war, a

whore (rhyming slang)
dollymop, a

a tawdrily dressed maid-servant, a street­walker
flash it, to

show it, to display one’s wares
dowry of parny, a

a lot of rain
bonneter, a

one who induces another to gamble
cool, to

to look, to look over (back slang)
longs and shorts

cards made for cheating
hazard drum, a

gambling dens, where the honest escape penniless, if at all
snickert, a

low alley way
ginnel, a

still lower alley way
bone-grubber, a

a person who hunts dust-holes, gutters, and all likely spots for refuse bones, which he sells at the ragshops, or to the bone-merchants.
ruffler, a

beggar pretending to be an old, maimed soldier
shivering-jemmy, a

a begger who exposes himself, half-naked, on a cold day to obtain alms. This occupation is unpleasant but exceedingly lucrative.
angler, an

a thief who goes about with a rod, having a hook at the end, which he inserts into open windows at night on the chance of a catch
clapperdogeon, a

a beggar who uses children, either of his own or borrowed, in order to stir the sympathy of the charitable
shed a tear, to

to take a dram or glass of neat spirits; jocular phrase used, with a sort of grim earnestness, by old topers. The origin may have been that ardent spirits, taken neat by younger persons, usually bring water to their eyes
I desire

fire (rhyming slang)
water of life

gin (from aqua vitae?)
common sewer

the throat
bullyrag, to

to abuse or scold violently; to swindle out of money by intimidation and sheer abuse
antiscriptural

adj — applied to oaths when they are composed of foul language
barney

the company
hip, to

to be offended
nab the rust, to

to take offence
shove in the mouth, a

glass of spirits
shoot the cat, to

vomit
dumpling depot

belly
all-overish

adj.—sick, unwell, out of order
have one’s hump up, to

to be in a fearful rage
absquatulate, to

depart from an establishment without paying one’s score
bung

landlord
square, to

to settle a bill
omee

man-in-charge; governor; landlord (when used by a landlord about himself)
cream of the valley

gin
splodger

lout
mizzle, to

to depart with great speed; to vanish
half-a-grunter

sixpence
ruggy

adj.