Coffee Break
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- Feb 13, 2022
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I read this expression, "small, ragged boys", but am finding it difficult to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:
They were over on the side track now—bang up against a row of very old and squashed-in houses with no gaps between like those at home. They had tiny back yards, and washing hung out, and sheds with their roofs piled high with pigeon boxes or rabbit hutches. The only flowers he could see were on the window sills and the only birds in tiny wooden cages on the walls outside. A solitary tree grew straight out of an asphalt yard, but it looked tired and prematurely bald. They passed a dusty recreation ground where the earth was quite bare round the swings. A few boys were playing cricket, and a man near by was lying flat on his back with a newspaper over his face and one knee raised. Ernie was sorry the cricket would be over by the time he got back, for he had good games with Ted and Sandy on their recreation ground: sometimes small, ragged boys came and watched on the outskirts, and eagerly gathered and threw back the ball if Ted or Sandy or Ernie called out “Thank you!” They formed rather an exclusive circle because they were all considering the idea of becoming professionals and very rarely allowed others to join them to bat and bowl.
R. C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September, Chapter 7
This is a novel published in 1931, which describes a fortnight in September in which an English family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Mary, Dick, and Ernie go on a holiday. During the train journey to the holiday destination, Ernie thinks about the cricket game he used to play with his friends, while looking out of the window to the ground.
In this part, I wonder what this underlined expression means, especially what "ragged" might mean here.
My humble guesses are:
(1) The boys are dressed in tattered clothes; or
(2) The boys are an ill-assorted group.
I wonder which one might be closer... Or there might be some other meaning I couldn't guess.
They were over on the side track now—bang up against a row of very old and squashed-in houses with no gaps between like those at home. They had tiny back yards, and washing hung out, and sheds with their roofs piled high with pigeon boxes or rabbit hutches. The only flowers he could see were on the window sills and the only birds in tiny wooden cages on the walls outside. A solitary tree grew straight out of an asphalt yard, but it looked tired and prematurely bald. They passed a dusty recreation ground where the earth was quite bare round the swings. A few boys were playing cricket, and a man near by was lying flat on his back with a newspaper over his face and one knee raised. Ernie was sorry the cricket would be over by the time he got back, for he had good games with Ted and Sandy on their recreation ground: sometimes small, ragged boys came and watched on the outskirts, and eagerly gathered and threw back the ball if Ted or Sandy or Ernie called out “Thank you!” They formed rather an exclusive circle because they were all considering the idea of becoming professionals and very rarely allowed others to join them to bat and bowl.
R. C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September, Chapter 7
This is a novel published in 1931, which describes a fortnight in September in which an English family consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Mary, Dick, and Ernie go on a holiday. During the train journey to the holiday destination, Ernie thinks about the cricket game he used to play with his friends, while looking out of the window to the ground.
In this part, I wonder what this underlined expression means, especially what "ragged" might mean here.
My humble guesses are:
(1) The boys are dressed in tattered clothes; or
(2) The boys are an ill-assorted group.
I wonder which one might be closer... Or there might be some other meaning I couldn't guess.
