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TO MY WIFE




INTRODUCTION

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THIS volume is in reality a continuation of Clog Shop Chronicles, and a few words of explanation are here inserted for the assistance of those who may not have read the former book.

    At the time of which we write, Beckside was a small Lancashire mill-village, situated on the south side of Brogden Clough, an irregular sort of glen running almost due east and west.  The only public buildings in the place were the schoolhouse and the little Methodist Chapel.  The latter stood on the right, just as you came down the hill along the highroad from Duxbury.  A little farther down, on the left, stood the Clog Shop, the little irregular row of cottages at the eastern end of which it stood forming the top or south side of a triangle, made by the abrupt turning of the highway down towards the Beck, and by Mill Lane, which led through the mill-yard on to Beckbottom and Clough End.

    The Clogger was the chief official at the chapel, and, being of a somewhat self-assertive disposition, he had become in course of time the ruling spirit of the village.  Long Ben, a tall, bony, mild-tempered carpenter, was his lieutenant.  And Sam Speck, a small-featured man living on a small annuity, acted as henchman to both.  Besides these there were Lige the road-mender, Jonas Tatlock the choirmaster, Nathan the Smith, and Jethro the knocker-up.  These worthies resorted to the Clog Shop at all convenient times, and there discussed such topics as the life of the village provided.  And it is these conversations and the circumstances connected with them which are here detailed.  The dialect is that spoken in the neighbourhood of Bolton.


CONTENTS
―――♦―――

 

PAGE

THE STUDENT

11.

LEAH'S LOVER―

 

I. THE BLACK SHEEP

33.

II. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE

53.

III. A NEW FINGER IN THE PIE

71.

IV. LETTER THAN HER FEARS

91.

SALLY'S REDEMPTION―

 

I. UNRECIPROCATED ADVANCES

115.

II. THE OLD LOVE

127.

LIGE'S LEGACY―

 

I. A LAWYER'S LETTER

141.

II. A QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE

163.

III. HOW THE NEW PLATE WAS BOUGHT

181.

THE MEMORY OF THE JUST―

 

I. A FATHER'S HONOUR

205.

II. OWD CROPPY'S ERRAND

217.

III. JOY COMETH IN THE MORNING.

231.

ISAAC'S ANGEL―

 

I. LOVE AND MUSIC.

241.

II. NO PLACE LIKE HOME

259.

ISAAC'S FIDDLE―

 

I. ROCKS AHEAD

279.

II. REMORSE

299.

III. THE SACRIFICE

309.

THE HARMONIUM―

 

I. AN APPLE OF DISCORD

321.

II. THE TRUSTEES' MEETING

339.

III. THE ANGELS' SONG

357.

THE HAUNTED MAN―

 

I. THE MAUVAIS SUJET

371.

II. HOW THE BOGGARTS WERE LAID

387.

 


 

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