n RUTH'S 'RUTH' 105 



her till I got hardly no work at all done; but 

 her'd never leave thlc beach till Dan'l's boat was 

 in, an' her could deliver up to 'en his little boy. 

 "Hullo, you! Be 'ee there, maid?" he'd shout 

 as he fetched the harbour. 



' "Hullo, you !" her'd shout back, imitating 

 the fishermen's manner o' speaking, which did 

 drive farmer fair mazed when her tried it on up 

 to the farm just for to annoy him an' please her- 

 self. "Hullo, you ! If thee 't comin', come, an' 

 I'll haul thee up; an' if thee a'tn't, zay so, an' 

 I'll bring out the li'l punt." 



'Dan'l Biscoe named his new trawler the Ruth 

 after her. Wild chap, he was, wilder than most 

 Waremen is, or used to be. His first wife, they 

 said, died o' worrying about 'en, his doings to sea 

 an' ashore; which may well have been, 'cause her 

 was a wisht puling body by all accounts. Not 

 but what he was a good fisherman an' earned good 

 money. He was always lucky, an' he'd go to sea 

 when never another boat did dare to put its nose . 

 round the Head. 



'Nothing would satisfy Miss Ruth but to go 

 to sea in the Ruth. 'Twas known as Ruth's Ruth, 

 thic boat, an' it come'd to farmer's ears that 'twas 

 so. He said her should never go out in her, n'eet 



