"And there was Mrs. Diggles, sir, that is at the
Checkers, sir, and she was speaking only the other day, as it might be,
about the old oak cupboard, that you remember, sir, and she was saying,
'Well, I wouldn't give that cupboard to Mahster Brand, though he offered
me twenty pound for it years ago--twenty pound, not a farthing less. My
vather he gave me that cupboard when I was married, and ten shillings
was what he paid for it: and then there was twenty-five shillings paid
for putting that cupboard to rights. And then the wet day that Mahster
Brand was out shooting, and the Checkers that crowded that I had to ask
him and the other gentleman to go into my own room, and what does he say
but, "Mrs. Diggles, I will give you twenty pound for that cupboard of
yourn, once you knock off the feet and the curly bit on the top." Law,
how the gentle-folk do know about sech things: that was exactly what my
vather he paid the twenty-five shillings for. But how could I give him
my cupboard for twenty pound when I had promised it to my nephew? When
I'm taken, that cupboard my nephew shall have.
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