Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Muckle Jock: And Other Stories of Peasant Life in the North
HE is passing my window now, walking down the village street, a great hulking, gnarled lout, bent by many a day of hard labour, no doubt, too, by his own share of sorrow. He is tawny with sun and dirt. Tramp, tramp, go his heavy-gaitered limbs as he shambles homewards. He is six feet one in his stockings, but looks three inches less. He is only thirty-two, but his hair is iron-gray. A most ungainly stupid seems this plodding, heavy, knotted, lump of humanity, as he goes splash, splash, through the rain pools - making no nice distinction of dry places, appearing even to favour. Wet ones, as he walks on, cold, hungry, tired, and patient withal. Well, what of him? Why, nothing very special but that is Muckle Jock, and I am interested in him. When we chance to meet I greet him warmly, and extract from him as many grunts as possible, for so he articulates chie?y. When opportunity presents itself, I do him kindly turns, too but he is shy both of conversation and kindness, and to shirk either would tramp a mile or two of miry lanes. I frankly confess that my friend is not sweet-smelling; but there are things other than lavender that make humanity gracious and fragrant, and, his uncouth exterior notwithstanding, Muckle Jock is a true man.
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