The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900 ... - Gredos

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
sed you was thinkink of your sins so i take up my pencle to ramind you about the sugar
bole you broke it and you sed it was pussy im afrade my dear jane your a lire from
simon weston fleetwood." The signature was squeezed into a very jammy place, but was
nevertheless legible.
When he had folded the missive, and absently wiped his sticky fingers on the skirt of his
tunic, it occurred to him that as Jane could not read he would be obliged to impart its
contents to her himself. He quaked a little at the notion, for Jane's hand was not only
hard and heavy, but exceedingly ready — yet he did not flinch from his purpose. His
opportunity came at bedtime, when Jane wrathfully took him to task for the condition of
his tunic.
"I was writing a letter, Jane," he explained with dignity; "I was writing a letter to you,
and I was obliged to take the cover of the jam-pot because I hadn't anything else to write
on."
"Well, to be sure," ejaculated Jane, "whatever was thou writing to me for?" Simon
wriggled himself free from her hands, and running over to his little cot produced the
letter from underneath his bolster.
"Here it is, Jane," he said solemnly. “Shall I read it to you?”
[9]
“Yigh — thou can if thou's a mind, soon as I gets to thy’air," returned Jane, curious and
amused. One by one Simon's small undergarments were removed, and he stood at length
divested of all save his little shirt. "Now, Jane, can I begin?"
He was facing her, his head thrown back, his legs planted firmly on the rug — such a
straight, well-made little fellow, his naked limbs so brown where they were exposed to
sun and wind, so white where the protecting skirts had covered them! Jane signified her
assent.
"But I’ll be brushin' thy 'air while I'm waiting," she said, twisting him dexterously
round.
This did not quite fall in with Simon's views, but he made no protest; his heart was
beating rather quickly, and he would have liked to be in a position to judge of the effect
produced by his homily. He gave one glance round to assure himself that Jane was