Their liddle wings could no more cross Channel than so many tired butterflies . A boat an ' a crew they desired to sail 'em over to France , where yet awhile folks had n't tore down the Images . They could n't abide cruel Canterbury Bells ringin ' to Bulverhithe for more pore men an ' women to be burnded , nor the King 's proud messenger ridin ' through the land givin ' orders to tear down the Images . They could n't abide it no shape . Nor yet they could n't get their boat an ' crew to flit by without Leave an ' Good-will from Flesh an ' Blood ; an ' Flesh an ' Blood came an ' went about its own business the while the Marsh was swarvin ' up , an ' swarvin ' up with Pharisees from all England over , strivin ' all means to get through at Flesh an ' Blood to tell 'em their sore need ... I do n't know as you 've ever heard say Pharisees are like chickens ? ' ` My woman used to say that too , ' said Hobden , folding his brown arms . ` They be . You run too many chickens together , an ' the ground sickens , like , an ' you get a squat , an ' your chickens die . Same way , you crowd Pharisees all in one place -- they do n't die , but Flesh an ' Blood walkin ' among 'em is apt to sick up an ' pine off . They do n't mean it , an ' Flesh an ' Blood do n't know it , but that 's the truth -- as I 've heard . The Pharisees through bein ' all stenched up an ' frighted , an ' trying ' to come through with their supplications , they nature-ally changed the thin airs an ' humours in Flesh an ' Blood . It lay on the Marsh like thunder . Men saw their churches ablaze with the wildfire in the windows after dark ; they saw their cattle scatterin ' an ' no man scarin ' ; their sheep flockin ' an ' no man drivin ' ; their horses latherin ' an ' no man leadin ' ; they saw the liddle low green lights more than ever in the dik-sides ; they heard the liddle feet patterin ' more than ever round the houses ; an ' night an ' day , day an ' night , 't was all as though they were bein ' creeped up on , an ' hinted at by Some One or other that could n't rightly shape their trouble . Oh , I lay they sweated ! Man an ' maid , woman an ' child , their nature done 'em no service all the weeks while the Marsh was swarvin ' up with Pharisees . But they was Flesh an ' Blood , an ' Marsh men before all . They reckoned the signs sinnified trouble for the Marsh . Or that the sea ` ud rear up against Dymchurch Wall an ' they 'd be drownded like Old Winchelsea ; or that the Plague was comin ' . So they looked for the meanin ' in the sea or in the clouds -- far an ' high up . They never thought to look near an ' knee-high , where they could see naught .
` Now there was a poor widow at XXXXX under the Wall , which , lacking man or property , she had the more time for feeling ; and she come to feel there was a Trouble outside her doorstep bigger an ' heavier than aught she 'd ever carried over it .
Blood Dymchurch dik-sides humours liddle scarin strivin supplications weeks wildfire