A roar of applause greeted the time-honored yarn,
and from somewhere over in the deeper darkness
came another voice, orating angrily:

"Talk o the country bein good for tommy [food].
I d like to see it. I jest came up from Dover, an
blessed little tommy I got. They won t gi ye a
drink o w 7 ater, they won t, much less tommy."

"There s mugs never go out of Kent," spoke a
second voice, " an they live bloomin fat all along."

"I come through Kent," went on the first voice,
still more angrily, "an Gawd blimey if I see any
tommy. An I always notices as the blokes as
talks about ow much they can get, w en they re in
the spike can eat my share o skilly as well as
their bleedin own."

"There s chaps in London," said a man across
the table from me, " that get all the tommy they
want, an they never think o goin to the country.
Stay in London the year round. Nor do they
think of lookin for a kip [place to sleep], till nine
or ten o clock at night."

A general chorus verified this statement.

"But they re bloody clever, them chaps," said an
admiring voice.

"Course they are," said another voice. " But it s
not the likes of me an you can do it. You got to
be born to it, I say. Them chaps ave ben openin
cabs an sellin papers since the day they was born,

[[104]]

p103 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p104w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p105

v?