lasses sailin’ boats on it.  So I said to misen:  ‘My word! but it’s Roundhay Park an’ all.’  But it wern’t nowt o’ t’ sort.  For one thing there were no policemen about, same as you’d see at Roundhay on a Bank Holiday, an’ at low side o’ t’ lake there was a town wi’ all maks an’ manders o’ buildin’s; an’, what’s more, a steel works wi’ blast-furnaces.  Weel, I were stood there, watchin’ t’ childer paddlin’ about i’ t’ watter, when somebody clapped his hand on my showder an’ sang out:  ’Hullo!  Job, how long hasta bin here?’ I looked round an’, by t’ Mass! who sud I see but Abe Verity.”

“Abe Verity!” I exclaimed.

“Ay, ’twere Abe hissen, plain as life.

“So I said:  ‘Hullo!  Abe, how ista?’

“‘Just middlin’,’ says Abe, ‘an’ how’s thisen?  How long hasta bin here?’

“Well, I didn’t hardlins know what to say to him.  You see I didn’t fairly know where I was, so I couldn’t tell him how lang I’d bin theer.  So I says to him:  ‘Sithee, Abe, is this Roundhay Park?’

“‘Raandhay Park,’ says Abe.  You see Abe allus talked a bit broad.  He couldn’t talk gradely English same as you an’ me.  ‘Twere all along o’ him livin’ wi’ them Leeds loiners up at Hunslet Carr.  ‘Raandhay Park!’ he says.  ‘Nay, lad, you’ll noan see birk-trees like yon i’ Raandhay Park.’  And he pointed to t’ birk-trees by t’ lake-side, wi’ boles two foot through.

“‘What is it then?’ I asked.  ’Have I coom to foreign parts?  I’m a bad ‘un to mell wi’ foreigners.’

“‘Nay,’ said Abe, ‘thou’s i’ heaven.’

“‘Heaven!’ I shouted out, an’ I looked up at Abe to see if he were fleerin’ at me.  He looked as grave as a judge, did Abe, but then I noticed that he were donned i’ his blue overalls, same as if he’d just coom frae his wark.  So I said to him:  ’Heaven, is it?  I can’t see mich o’ heaven about thee, Abe.  Wheer’s thy harp an’ crown o’ gowd?’

“‘Harp an’ crown o’ gowd,’ said Abe, an’ he started laughin’.  ’Who is thou takkin’ me for?  I’m noan King David.  I’m a vesselman at t’ steel works,’ an’ he pointed wi’ his hand across t’ lake to wheer we could see t’ forge.

“Gow! but I were fair flustrated.  There was Abe Verity tellin’ me one minute that I were in heaven, and next minute he were sayin’ that he were workin’ at t’ steel works.  You see I had allus thowt that i’ heaven iverything would be different to what it is on earth.  So I said:  ’Does thou mean to tell me, Abe, that lads i’ heaven do t’ same sort o’ wark that they’ve bin doin’ all their lives on earth?’

“‘Nay,’ says Abe, ’I’ll noan go so far as to say just that.  What I say is that they start i’ heaven wheer they’ve left off on earth; but t’ conditions is different.’

“‘How’s that?’ I axed.

“‘Well, for one thing, a lad taks more pride i’ his wark; an’, what’s more, he’s freer to do what he likes.  When I were at Leeds Steel Works I had to do choose-what t’ boss telled me.  Up here I’m my own boss.’