Then quick as leetnin’ ivver wor, A thowt com i’ mi heead— I’d tak a walk to t’Simetry, An’ meditate wi’ t’deead.

T’owd Church clock wor striking’ t’ time At folk sud be asleep, Save t’Bobbies at wor on ther beat, An’ t’Pindar after t’sheep.

Wi’ lengthen’d pace I hasten’d off At summat like a trot; Ta get ta t’place I started for, Mi blood wor boiling hot.

An’ what I saw at Lackock Gate, Rear’d up ageean a post, I cuddant tell—but yet I thowt It wor another goast!

p. 46But whether it wor a goast or net, I heddant time ta luke, Fer I wor takken bi surprise When turning t’Sharman’s Nuke.

p. 46

Abaat two hunderd yards i’ t’front, As near as I could think, I thowt I heeard a dreeadful noise, An’ nah an’ then a clink!

Whativver can these noises be? Some robbers, then I thowt!— I’d better step aside an’ see, They’re happen up ta nowt!

So I gat ower a fence ther wor, An’ peeping threw a gate, Determin’d to be satisfied, If I’d a while to wait.

At last two figures com ta t’spot Whear I hed hid misel, Then walkers’-earth and brimstone, Most horridly did smell.

Wun on em hed a nine-tail’d cat, His face as black as sooit, His name, I think wor Nickey Ben, He hed a clovven fooit.

An’ t’other wor all skin an’ bone His name wor Mr. Deeath; Withaat a stitch o’ clooas he wor, An’ seem’d quite aght o’ breeath.

p. 47He hed a scythe, I plainly saw, He held it up aloft, Just same as he wor bahn ta maw Owd Jack O’Doodle’s Croft.

p. 47

“Where are ta bahn ta neet, grim phiz?”  Sed Nickey, wi’ a grin, “Tha knaws I am full up below, An’ cannot tak more in.”

“What is’t ta thee?” said Spinnel Shanks,  “Tha ruffin of a dog, I’m nobbut bahn mi raands ageean, Ta see wun John o’t’ Bog.

“I cannot see it fer mi life, What it’s ta dew wi’ thee; Go mind thi awn affairs, owd Nick, An’ nivver thee heed me.”

“It is my business, Spinnel Shanks, Whativver tha may say, Fer I been rostin’ t’human race Fer monny a weary day.”

Just luke what wark, 

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