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Straw

.

Servants wishing to be hired used to go into the market-place of Carlisle (Carel) with a straw in their mouth. (See Mop.)

“At Carel I stuid wiʹa strae i my mouth,

The wey ves com rounʹ me in custers;

What weage dus teax, canny lad?ʹ says yen.”

Anderson: Cumberland Ballads.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Not Worth a Straw