THIRD DAY. 89 



Simon. The dreshes gwo a gogglin' afore 

 it 's light. When I was a bwoy, I used to 

 find they was allus afore a body, get up 

 when ye would. 



J. I am a little at fault again. Pray, 

 what does Simon mean by " gwoin ' a gog- 

 gling?" 



S. A goggle is a snail's shell. The 

 word, though in a corrupt form, is one of 

 the few in provincial use derived from the 

 Norman-French coquille. To go a gog- 

 gling is to go a picking up snail's shells a 

 favourite pastime of country urchins. Simon 

 alludes to the habits of the thrushes and 

 blackbirds, who prey upon land snails, first 

 cracking the shell by seizing it in their 

 beaks and dashing it against a stone. In 

 this way they destroy thousands of the most 

 brilliant-coloured shells, which are always 

 brighter than those the creature has va- 

 cated. 



J. Yes, I am told that some of the 



