People Who Talk.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 6, 10 February 1909, Page 54

People Who Talk.

“There isn’t any rush about it,” said the man with the hod. “I’ve got enough mortar up there now to keep the lazy maisons going half an hour, unless the •boss comes round and they take a ‘notion to work. Take it easy. Don’t get into a sweat.” “I can’t help it,” said the man with the hoe. “That’s the kind of a rooster 1 am. Working’s my pleasure and delight and sloshipg mortar round in a box is my delight. I vvou’dn’i have your job, not even if they paid me big wages for it like they do you. How do you fool 'em Sam ? ” “Do you mean fool them into paying me big wages?” asked the man with the hod. “They do that on account o’ me beauty. They're struck on it. That’s what Monyhan told me when he hired me. 'You don’t have to do nothing,’ he says. ‘AH I ast of you is to carry the •material up to them fellers that’s a-lay-ing the bricks. They’ll do the work,’ die says. ‘You won’t have to lay your hands to it.’ He’s a great boy, is Monyhan. But he talks too much with his mouth.” “He isn't like you,” said the man with the hoe. “1 let my wife do my talking for me.” said the man with the hod. "She’s good for my share, and her own, too. Don’t it beat everything the way women talk? What's the reason for it, do you know? You never see two of them get together but their tongues start a-clacking. One woman'll be in the back yard hanging up the wash and tending strictly to business; but let the woman next door come out, and there’s a talkest on right away.” “ It beats me too,” said the man with the hoe. “Ever listen to a dozen of cm together ?” “One’s enough for me,” said the man with the hod, “and too many most o’ the time. The woman, she’s always asaying, ‘Now Sam, you ain’t a-listening to what I’m saying.’ Well, you can’t tell her that what she’s a-saying ain’t worth listening to. If you did, she’d talk all the more.” “I’d just as soon hear what she has to say, if she'd talk sense; but women doin’t talk sense. They just talk to be talking. It doesn’t amount to a row of pins. It’s mostly about the neighbours, and the neighbours’ kids and the way they're been raised, and how much bluing to put in the rinsing water, and th? price o' groceries. Or else they’re giving the men fits behind their backs. It doesin’t matter what’s it about. They’ll talk, anyway.” “No matter what they've got to do,” said the man with the hoe. "No matter what they've got to do,” agreed the man with the hod. “ 'Visiting,’ they call it. That means they’ve both been talking together all the afternoon, and when they’ve got through neither of ’em know what the other’s been talking about. Isn’t that so? When tjvey get together they forget about everything else, and they’!! just stand and talk and talk, and they may not either of them have their dishes washed.” “That's right,” said the man with the hoe. “The way it is with my wife ” began the man with the hod. “Hush a minute,” interrupted the other man. “Somebody’s hollering.” “It’s them lazy masons,” said the man with the hod, starting up. “Take the shovel ami load me up. Them fellers don’t want a feller tu late time lo dror a long breath.”