Jacob the Great

Vocabulary
8. brimmer: a hat with a brim

9. fortnight: fourteen nights (two-weeks)

10. rockery: a section of a garden made from decorative rocks

11. dab: one skillful or proficient; an expert; an adept

12. laws of treasure trove: under UK law, found treasure
belongs to the government

13. Crown: a metonymy (part representing the whole) for the

UK government

14. dustman: garbage man; waste-collector

15. holidaying: taking a vacation from work

16. jackanapes: a mischievous person; a monkey on a leash

17. half-crown: heavy silver coin weighing about half of an ounce

18. pound: the basic monetary unit of the UK, equal to 100 pence

19. parenthesis: a digression; the use of such digressions

"Now, you'd 'ardly believe it, but all them three days I never 'ad a chance at the blessed treasure, never got out not even a 'arf-crown. There was always somethink--always.

"'Stonishing thing it isn't thought of more," said Mr. Brisher. "Finding treasure's no great shakes. It's gettin' it. I don't suppose I slep' a wink any of those nights, thinking where I was to take it, what I was to do with it, 'ow I was to explain it. It made me regular ill. And days I was that dull, it made Jane regular 'uffy. 'You ain't the same chap you was in London,' she says, several times. I tried to lay it on 'er father and 'is Snacks, but bless you, she knew better. What must she 'ave but that I'd got another girl on my mind! Said I wasn't True. Well, we had a bit of a row. But I was that set on the Treasure, I didn't seem to mind a bit anything she said.
"Well, at last I got a sort of plan. I was always a bit good at planning, though carrying out isn't so much in my line. I thought it all out and settled on a plan. First, I was going to take all my pockets full of these 'ere 'arf-crowns--see?--and afterwards as I shall tell.
"Well, I got to that state I couldn't think of getting at the Treasure again in the daytime, so I waited until the night before I had to go, and then, when everything was still, up I gets and slips down to the back door, meaning to get my pockets full. What must I do in the scullery but fall over a pail! Up gets 'er father with a gun--'e was a light sleeper was 'er father, and very suspicious and there was me: 'ad to explain I'd come down to the pump for a drink because my water-bottle was bad. 'E didn't let me off a Snack or two over that bit, you lay a bob."
"And you mean to say--" I began.
"Wait a bit," said Mr. Brisher. "I say, I'd made my plan. That put the kybosh²⁵ on one bit, but it didn't 'urt the general scheme not a bit. I went and I finished that rockery next day, as though there wasn't a Snack in the world; cemented over the stones, I did, dabbed it green and everythink. I put a dab of green just to show where the box was. They all came and looked at it, and say 'ow nice it was--even 'e was a bit softer like to see it, and all he said was, 'It's a pity you can't always work like that, then you might get something definite to do,' he says.
"'Yes,' I says--I couldn't 'elp it--'I put a lot in that rockery,' I says, like that. See? 'I put a lot in that rockery'--meaning--"

"I see," said I--for Mr. Brisher is apt to overelaborate his jokes.

"'E didn't," said Mr. Brisher. "Not then, anyhow.
"Ar'ever--after all that was over, off I set for London... Orf I set for London."
Pause.